Senior Operas
The Senior Opera is one of the highlights of the school year at Lamplighter. Since 1991, the Lamplighter seniors have, with the help of music and drama teachers, written and performed original operas on topics of their own choosing.
Typically, Senior Operas include three separate performances, each opera being written by a separate group of fourth graders. The opera’s tone may range from slapstick to serious moral drama. Every senior has an integral role in bringing the operas to life, from imagining the original story, writing and scoring the libretto, designing and executing the sets, learning and rehearsing their parts, selecting a singing style, to acting in the final performance. The most recent pieces were entitled The Bad Times Betrayal of the Bullies, the Buddies, and Benedict (focusing on the first day of school for a new student); The Invasion and Great War of the Attacking Aliens and the Humans of the Frightened City (featuring an alien spaceship that lands on earth and how the citizens and the military react); and To Save the Village from the Evil Lord’s Greed, or The Dragon’s Paradox (about poor villagers who are ruled by a cruel Lord until a dragon intervenes). At the end of the school year, seniors perform their operas in the Klyde Warren Auditorium. The Lamplighter philosophy values resilience, perseverance, imagination, teamwork, and progress over product. This philosophy is a large part of what gives seniors the freedom and confidence to express themselves creatively before an appreciative audience of family members, faculty, and their fellow students.