On Monday, Feb. 11 and Wednesday, Feb. 13, french teacher Ilkay Ozdemir’s first period accelerated French III class performed a famous French opera: Carmen.
 
The students spent their class preparing for this project every day for a week. Before this, Ozdemir taught the class french vocabulary related to Carmen and operas in general.
 
Toward the end of the unit, the class chose to do a project focussing on the different aspects of Carmen instead of taking a unit test. Frankly, how many people would rather study for a test?
 
Conveniently, the class consists of many musically inclined students. These students chose to perform the most well-known song from Carmen: Habanera.
 
Sophomores Ezri Abraham (Drums), Ethan Berkman (Clarinet), Will Schetelich (Trumpet), Adam Ali (Trumpet), Matthew Sabony (Guitar) and Benjamin Krauss (Guitar) performed the instrumental part of the song. Sophomores Chloe Alce and Emma Guan chose to sing the song.
 
Some students preferred acting. They summarized the four acts of the opera and wrote scripts to act out in front of the class. Sophomores Jamie Wirth, Chloe Rousseau, Serena Sirichio and Abigail Hanvey performed these four acts.
 
Other students formed groups and shared presentations regarding costumes, what happens behind the scenes in an opera and the origins of the opera.
 
The students were told to include the audience is some way. For example, some students asked their peers questions during their presentations and the students that sang asked the audience to sing along.
 
Assistant Principal Brooke Esposito was invited by Ozdemir to watch the class present. Ozdemir and Esposito were excited to see what the students had come up with.
 
From what was gathered, the class was very enthusiastic about the project and were all productive. Ozdemir was able to thoroughly and successfully introduce a different aspect of the French culture to her students.
 
After this project, many students found that they do indeed enjoy operas, and some will also make an effort to see an opera in person.