Imagine having free rein at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, with its famous Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton and life-size model of a blue whale. Or getting a chance to see the Terra Cotta Army in Xi’an, China, without the crowds. Or exploring the seminal Sydney Opera House in Australia after dark.
If you had the opportunity to sleep over at one of these places, or another science, art or cultural institution of your choosing, would you take it?
In “A Night to Remember at the Opera, Complete With a Phantom,” Elisabetta Povoledo writes about a group of 130 children, ages 8 to 10, who got to sleep over at the Teatro Costanzi, an opera house in Rome. She explains why the theater hosted the event:
“The theater is a place where strange things happen, where what is impossible becomes possible,” Francesco Giambrone, the Costanzi’s general manager, told the children Saturday afternoon when they arrived to participate in a get-to-know-the-theater-sleepover.
Music education ranks as a low priority in Italy, the country that invented opera and gave the world some of its greatest composers. Many experts, including Mr. Giambrone, say their country has rested on its considerable laurels rather than cultivate a musical culture that encourages students to learn about their illustrious heritage.
With little backing from schools or lawmakers, arts organizations like the Costanzi have concluded that it is up to them to reach out to the young.
The article continues, describing what the children did during their night at the theater:
On Saturday, the children watched part of a rehearsal for an upcoming performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony — “the conductor uses a wand to direct music, not so different from Harry Potter’s but more important,” Ms. Nigro said. They learned how the staff cleaned the world’s biggest chandelier in a historic building, and they got to know the ins and outs of the theater via a treasure hunt (read general mayhem) that had them scrambling up and down stairs, flitting in and out of stalls like a multicharacter French farce.
Emma the phantom — Valentina Gargano, a soprano in the opera’s young artists program — made an encore, exacting a promise from the children that they would tell their friends about “this magic place” and come back when they grew up.
One girl had been so convinced that Ms. Gargano was a real ghost that the organizers made sure they met when the soprano was in street clothes.
After being serenaded with music, including Brahms’ classic lullaby, the children settled down (or tried to) in a patchwork of sleeping bags on an artificial green lawn used in a previous production of Madama Butterfly. Above them loomed oversize photos of some of the stars who performed at the Costanzi, like Maria Callas, Herbert von Karajan and Rudolf Nureyev.
After breakfast on Sunday, the children took part in workshops at which they designed colorful paper ballet costumes, learned basic ballet positions, sang as part of a choir (some more enthusiastically than others) and played an opera-themed version of snakes and ladders. The game was designed and overseen by Giordano Punturo, the opera’s stage manager, done up in a tuxedo and colorful top hat.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What are your thoughts on the sleepover at the Teatro Costanzi? Does it sound like an event you would have liked to attend when you were younger?
If you could spend the night at any museum or venue — a specific museum, theater, library, art gallery, sports stadium, botanical garden — anywhere in the world, where would you like to go? Why? What fascinates you about that place?
Imagine you had nearly free rein at that place during your sleepover; you could go anywhere, see anything and talk to anyone who worked there. What would you most like to do, learn, experience or explore?
The sleepover at the Costanzi was part of a campaign to make up for what experts see as a lack of music education in Italy. How important do you think education in the arts is? Does your country prioritize it enough? Do you ever wish you had more opportunities to take classes in music, theater, film, visual arts and the like, or to participate in events like the one described in the article? Why or why not?
The sleepover was also an effort to make theater and opera more familiar and accessible, especially to children. How welcome and comfortable do you feel in places like museums and theaters? What do you think cultural institutions like these could do to attract more young people?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
