• Learn More About Opera

Grade 2, Unit 6, Lesson 3

An opera is a story acted out through music.
The orchestra plays music to describe the setting.
The characters sing their words.

Sometimes there is dialogue.
A duet is two singers.
A trio is three singers.
A quartet is four singers.

Sometimes all the characters in the chorus sing.

Sometimes one singer has a solo, called an aria.

Women's voices are usually soprano (higher) or alto (lower).
Men's voices are usually tenor (higher) or bass (lower).

You can tell a story as an opera.
Choose a favorite story that has interesting characters and lots of spoken parts. First read it as Reader's Theater with a narrator and characters. Then, read it again, singing instead of speaking. This may seem awkward at first, but it gets really easy, and then it is fun!