ABSTRACT
Opera is considered by its devotees to be the highest form of art. Grand opera, to give the art form its more venerable name, is so praised because it represents an especially vibrant intersection of words, music, and stagecraft. In theory, then, opera is a natural artistic medium to present to gifted students. An offshoot of this discussion was the students' increasing interest in the importance of dramatic gestures and, as a corollary, how important these gestures would be in an opera. Parents of the students were invited to the morning school-day performance, as were the 4ththrough 6th-grade gifted classes-Sprague wanted Pritzker's younger students to witness the initial performance of the opera to get a feel for what they themselves would be doing in forthcoming years. In the summer of 2001, a teacher education course, "Opera: A Story That Is Sung," was given at the Civic Opera House in downtown Chicago.
