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    Dwight-Englewood Fifth-Graders Present Original Opera

    Dwight-Englewood Fifth-Graders Present Original Opera

    By Ben Matiash and Allison Labutin

    The Dwight-Englewood School fifth-graders presented an original opera titled "Inside Out" on April 30 in the school's auditorium. This is an annual project for the school's fifth-graders, who write, direct, and market the show from scratch.

     

    The Crew of 52 Opera Company, made up entirely of fifth-grade students at Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, NJ, presented an original opera based on the theme of freedom and entitled Inside Out. The opera was performed on Thursday, April 30 at 7:30pm in Hajjar Auditorium on the Dwight-Englewood School campus.

    opera musicians

    Composers and musicians from left to right: Eila Nambiar, Andrew Shi, Ryan Ro, and Anton Lee composed and performed the original music for the opera.

    At the beginning of the school year, every fifth-grader at the school applies for a job with the opera company and goes through an interview for their position. The students have an opera teacher/advisor to guide them, but all words, music, designs, etc. are imagined and created by these 10- and 11-year-old students.



    This is the 28th consecutive year that Dwight-Englewood has hosted the Creating Original Opera program, which is produced in cooperation with New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

    opera team

    Left to right: Public relations officers Allison Labutin and Ben Matiash designed the logo, wrote press releases for the media, and designed programs for the opera.

    “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said fifth-grader Benjamin Matiash, one of the “Crew of 52” public relations officers. “I never thought that I would be responsible for so much writing [and] for helping to design our logo with my partner, Allison Labutin, all at the age of only 11!”

     

    Main photo: Performers first row left to right: Daniel Moriarty, Charlie Spitzley, George Perez. Second row left to right: Sam Tausner, Sedona Perin, Leah Baker, Sophia Seriale, Emma Lagana, and Angie Victor.
    Photos courtesy The Crew of 52 Opera Company

      

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