Opera North is sponsoring an art contest for elementary school age students (grades 1-6) to give them an opportunity to learn about opera and its many creative elements - stories, music, the scenery, and costumes. The art contest encourages students to create drawings or paintings that represent the scenes and/or stories for Opera North's August 2010 operas - Mozart's Don Giovanni and Puccini's La bohème.

We are inviting the community to engage their students in learning a bit about these two operas by hearing the music, learning about the characters by reading or listening to the stories, and looking at images of the Spanish countryside and architecture. The operas take place in summer and in locations related to the stories.

Opera North has prepared a packet of resources to help teachers prepare lesson plans and enrichment activities for their students. We also welcome teachers' ideas for student activities and encourage you to share those with us.

The deadline for the contest is May 14, 2010. Notification of winners will be made by June 1, 2010.