New years seem to bring with them a renewed sense of hope. This sense of hope and a desire for peace will find an important new voice on Wednesday night, January 26th at a public elementary school in upstate, New York. But the kids of New Scotland Elementary School in Albany will not be singing about peace. They will be singing about playing soccer and taking an exam, and meeting a new classmate and not liking the lunches their parents packed for them. All will seem wonderfully normal for the kids of “The Classroom” a one-act children's opera that will receive its world premiere later this month. But this is not a typical opera and at least for now the class of students is not typical either. For this evening, the young performers at New Scotland Elementary School are trading in their names for names such as Yousef and Itai, Soha and Shira, so that they can portray Palestinian and Israeli children enjoying a school day together as classmates and friends. More than trading names, the young performers have used this experience to learn more about the Palestinian and Israeli cultures they are representing. They learned about what children like to eat, the games they play, and the importance of education and family. All this leads the children of “The Classroom” to understand that kids a half a world away are not much different than themselves. While peace is never sung about in the opera (there is one song about friendship and towards the end of the opera the students greet a new classmate whose identity is never revealed so as not to disturb the equality between the groups), it is the naturalness of how the children get along perfectly well, not noticing or not caring about differences, that forms the underlying message of “The Classroom.” Tolerance and acceptance are not preached, but rather modeled on stage by kids who simply want to get along. The music of “The Classroom: A Children's Peace Opera” does not specify which groups are to be represented, except that the groups be evenly divided and have some lingering conflict with one another. It will be interesting in the future to see what groups communities choose to make “The Classroom” meaningful to them. But no matter which groups are selected, we can hope that for children to learn tolerance and understanding towards one set of groups in conflict will awaken their sensitivity towards other sets of groups in conflict as well. So, on Wednesday night, January 26th in a small cafatorium (a large room the children use for lunch during the day and performances in the evening), amidst cardboard scenery painted by even more children at this elementary school, we will witness the first performance of a children's peace opera. The work was inspired in part by a statement made by Mahatma Gandhi who said: “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” “The Classroom” embraces this philosophy but takes it one step further. Because when “The Classroom” is performed, it will be the children who will be teaching us. ** More information on “The Classroom: A Children's Peace Opera” and an audio excerpt are available here BM
