Chicago Opera Theater's Opera for All program brings professional performers into K-12 Chicago classrooms for a rigorous opera experience tied to the Theater's premier performance of the season. This year, Chicago Opera Theater is debuting a new opera called A Flowering Tree. Each class learned about the opera itself, as well as musical concepts, culture and the arts and the history and context of opera as an art form. Each class has a culminating performance -- with student responsibilities including writing, performing, directing, and set and costume design.

One high school class recently performed Pirates of Penzance, one of Leah's favorite operas as a kid. We've had the pleasure of working with the Opera for All program to design an evaluation that helped to better define the program's goals and outcomes.