A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT OPERA.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

What does it take to hold a group of elementary school students spellbound for an hour?

If "large-voiced people singing arias" didn't make your list, it wouldn't surprise Robert Ashens, artistic director of the Eugene Opera.

He knows lots of people mistake opera as that thing featuring big women wearing horned head pieces singing in languages mostly understood a continent away. They're the ones who don't know that opera shares something with rap and that it comes in plenty of musical forms, including jazz and rock 'n' roll, Ashens said.

But Spring Creek Elementary School students got their first taste of opera as a lighthearted confection of fanciful tunes and clever lyrics when three local performers sang Seymour Barab's "Little Red Riding Hood" in two separate performances at the school Friday.

It helped that the lead character was a scaredy-cat wolf with an easily upset stomach, that Little Red Riding Hood was a disobedient little priss and that Grandma was a goofball.

The students easily took to the big-toothed carnivore who sang about his mother, who blanched at the mere mention of vegetables and who was such a space cadet that he couldn't recall the name of his potential meal: "Little Blue Riding Hood?" "Little Yellow Riding Hood?"

The kids happily cued him every time he got it wrong.

The trick is all in the pacing, Ashens said. Just as the youngsters' interest might flag, something new happens.

"Well done, opera can grab and hold people's attention," he said.

Ashens doesn't necessarily want to convert kids to opera, although he wouldn't mind creating a few new fans.

"I just want to give them a sense of the history. It's a 400-year-old tradition that can tell us about our culture and the world," he said. It's a form that's not so far removed from the music of today. Like rap, opera links words and rhythms to tell stories, he said.

Ashens used the opportunity to slide in a little strategic educating. By the time the program was over, the students had some new vocabulary to play with. They knew that an opera is a play that is sung, that an aria is just another word for song, that you don't always need words to express feelings and that the guy at the piano is the maestro.

The opera - written by American composer Seymour Barab, who is noted for writing music that appeals to youths - is one of the most performed children's operas in America, Ashens said.

It's the first time the Eugene Opera has presented it at an area school, but Ashens expects it won't be the last. He hopes the production will be a prototype for future performances at other schools.

Local singers Jessica Rossi, Heidi Hopkins, Marieke Schuurs and David Bersch performed, with accompaniment by Ashens. Students and parents helped paint the colorful sets, and a chorus of students also got a chance to shine with the professional singers, offering a rousing version of the old-time classic, "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover."

Classroom volunteer Harry Villec, who regularly teaches music at Spring Creek, helped bring the opera to the school. He said Ashens initially wanted the students to sing "When You're Smiling," but Villec demurred. "I said, `I don't know, Robert. When do you smile in this opera? When the wolf eats Grandma?' '

CAPTION(S):

Professional opera singer David Bersch plays the Big Bad Wolf in a production Friday of `Little Red Riding Hood' at Spring Creek Elementary in Eugene. Jessica Rossi plays Little Red Riding Hood. The show was the first the Eugene Opera has presented in an area school. Please turn to OPERA, Page B4 Opera: Schoolchildren enjoy Eugene performance Continued from Page B1