Famed NYC High School dumps Annual Musical for Opera
New York's LaGuardia High School, the basis of the musical "Fame," has decided not to mount a typical class play this year. But of course, it's not a typical high school - it's trying an opera.

Opera and high schoolers don't generally mix. Not only are most operas too demanding for still-developing teenage voices, but there's that image thing. In a March 6 story on NPR's "Morning Edition," a student in LaGuardia's new opera program recalls once thinking that she'd "have to put on a lot of weight" and wear horns on her head. She admitted eveolving from a "Why are you singing THAT?" attitude to a "Singing opera makes me feel nice" point of view.

Even LaGuardia High School had avoided opera until recently. But for the past year, 30 students who passed an audition have been working 5 days a week on "the real thing." All juniors & seniors with 2 years of classical voice training, they soon will perform "Orfeo ed Euridice," Christoph Willibald Gluck's 18th-century telling of the Orpheus legend.

Program Director Andratti chose this Baroque piece with the young singers in mind, noting that, with the notable exception of The Magic Flute, older operatic works made fewer demands on the voice.

Opera's intensely dramatic gestures and staging are proving another challenge for the ambitious teens. In the radio story, one student remembers wondering during a rehearsal, "Why is my friend Diana looking at my like I'm a goddess? Oh yeah, I AM one!"

Link to the NPR audio article on LaGuardia's opera program (7:21, including musical excerpts from their rehearsals)



The school has a distinctive as well as distinguished history. In 1936, Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia established The High School of Music and Art, hoping to offer a place where the City's most talented public school students could pursue their artistic dreams while also getting a full academic education. In 1948, The School of Performing Arts opened in the theater district, also offering a vocational program coupled with academics, and specializing in intense studio training in instrumental music drama & dance. In 1961 the two schools merged, and in 1984 they became Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, under a single roof, across from Lincoln Center

Link to the official site of LaGuardia High School