Bravo! brava! a night at the opera : behind the scenes with composers, cast, and crew(JN)

A delightful introduction to opera, Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera teaches elementary school children what opera is by showing how it is made. "Who writes the words?", "Who makes an opera happen? "Who is backstage?"--these questions and more are answered with easy-to-understand explanations and are illustrated with whimsical watercolors by the author. From composer, choreographer, and costume designers to the conductor, lighting and special effects crew, and, of course, the singers, the excitement builds as Anne Siberell explains each person's role in producing an opera. Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera reveals details of the most famous operas' plots and characters along the way and includes synopses of 27 popular operas, a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an index. Introduces the art of opera, and provides information on its origins, all the various types of people needed to put on a performance, and the plots of some of the best known operas. In about 1600 in Florence, Italy, some poets and musicians called the Camerata ("the group that meets in a room") wanted to start a new kind of musical entertainment.