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Opera Appreciation


Opera appreciation is an activity in my retirement community that has been handled on a few different levels. The independent living residents in my continuing care retirement community love music and I'd bet yours do too. For this post, I am going to speak about the love of opera, but the same thoughts could be applied to any variety of music that your residents enjoy.
  • First, is the most obvious way to reach your audience of opera buffs, bring in an opera singer to perform on your stage. I have been fortunate enough to have talented men and women contact me to perform. I've also gone to our local university to find very talented music students. Look at your community's university and see what they have to offer.
  • Next, you may have a speaker come to the community and share facts about opera. This person may be a hired professional that comes from the university, as mentioned above, or someone from your local library, or a resident living in your community that is well rehearsed in the subject.
  • Have a regularly scheduled opera video showing. We have this once a month after dinner. A resident runs it. By this I mean, she selects the video, provides a written summary of it for the audience and then introduces it to the audience the night of the show. Click her to see some of the videos that she likes to show.
  • Make friends with your local library. Most have their selections available to see on-line
  • Buy a video series from a highly reputable source such as the Great Courses program and show it once a week. They have How to Listen to and Understand Opera, Life and Operas of Verdi, Operas of Mozart, and more. They are a bit pricey, but very worthwhile having in your collection. Also, ask your residents, I have been lucky enough to have some residents loan me theirs from their collection.
Opera appreciation in your retirement community should be on your calendar is some shape and frequency. Look into it if you don't have it on yet. It really is not that hard to do and most likely there is a resident in your community who would be glad to assist you with it. Who knows, maybe you too will have an appreciation for Opera afterwards - if you don't already!                  
   
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