NYC’s schools closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic the week the three first grade classes at the Brooklyn Children’s School were scheduled to perform their operas, which the children had written and composed themselves.  I still held out hope at the time that the performances would only be postponed.  But schools will remain closed for the rest of the term.  The performances won’t happen.

So now, as a poor substitute, I am sharing – in three posts, one for each class – the stories and the music of the three first grade operas that never got their day on the stage.  The children have their scripts at home with them, but with this they now also have recordings of their songs to share and sing along.

Just like in class, every recording will start with three piano chords to get ready before the melody starts and you can sing along (or simply follow along reading the words in the score).  I used a different “instrument” from my keyboard’s sound library for each melody.  For Class 1-3’s songs I used “Steel Guitar”, “Church Organ”, “Vocal Aah”, “Violin”, “Music Box” and “Oboe”.  Can you guess which sound is the melody for which song?

CLASS 1-3 OPERA

“The Mysterious Castle”

No dragons or big cats in this story.  But a dungeon figures here, if not quite as prominently as in 1-1’s opera.

The story begins up in the skies, where Dana is flying a magic carpet.  The carpet can fly because it has been soaked in magic water from a magic pond.  Dana is flying to the pond to retrieve more magic water to use it to help Dana’s home village, currently suffering under a food shortage.

SONG #1 – FLYING ON A MAGIC CARPET

Meanwhile, in the Bad Castle, the ruler Caya is counting all the gold in the gold room.

SONG #2 – COUNTING GOLD

The Bad Castle’s dungeon master Bena is unhappy, because Caya has turned Bena’s family into chameleons.

SONG #3 – CHAMELEON FAMILY

Amara, a thief, is sneaking about the castle.  Near the gold room Amara sees bottles of liquid in a cupboard, but is not interested in these.  Amara enters the gold room but then falls through a trap door into the dungeon.

SONG #4 – STUCK IN A DUNGEON

Dana’s flying carpet starts to fall.  It needs more magic liquid to keep going.  Dana and the carpet tumble out of the sky right into the Bad Castle.  Caya takes the carpet and throws Dana into the dungeon.

Now Dana and Amara are stuck in the dungeon together.

SONG #4 – STUCK IN A DUNGEON – REPRISE

Together Dana and Amara figure out that Caya has magic pond water in the bottles Amara saw in the cupboard near the gold room.  With that magic liquid they hope to escape with the flying carpet.

Bena overhears them and decides to help.  Bena sends his chameleon family to sneak into the castle’s gold room to get the magic potion and the magic carpet.

SONG #5 – WE’RE SNEAKING INTO THE CASTLE

The magic potion turns the chameleons back into people and also makes the carpet fly again.  Bena’s family flies to the dungeon to pick up Bena, Dana and Amara.  Together they fly off to the magic pond to get more liquid for Dana’s village (and magic some gold for Amara too).

SONG #6 – LET’S FLY AWAY