Fire, Rings and Dragons

Ever since the kids were little, we've been excited for the day that they could begin attending operas. I always had it in the back of my head that, when they were older, I could send them to some of Bray's rehearsals after school, and they could watch their dad performing Mozart, Verdi and Rossini all while doing trigonometry and history homework. Now, of course, they aren't quite at that stage of life (unless we have some child geniuses on our hands-after all, they're only 2 and 4!) but they are old enough to sit still for a few hours, and listen fairly quietly.
Every year, Seattle Opera puts on a children's opera, and the last few seasons they have been doing an adaptation of Wagner's Siegfried and The Ring of Fire, Act III, by Jonathan Dean.
Bray thought that the kids would love it, and so decided we should take them for the last dress rehearsal. Since he shares a role with another tenor in the program, he was able to sit with us for the performance. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant, as children are not generally welcome at operatic performances, but Bray reassured me that they wanted the kids there-as they perform it around Seattle's elementary schools.
On the day of the performance, we told the kids we were going to go see a dragon and fire at Daddy's work, hoping to get them excited for the show. They usually like to go 'get' Daddy from work, as there are 2 life-size plastic horses hanging from the ceiling in the storage area of the rehearsal building, but I wanted them to know this was different, special.
Since they take the opera around the area, the set pieces are minimal, but extremely colorful and dramatic. It is such a neat experience, because not only do they perform it for children age 7 and up, they also have 60 kids from each school perform certain parts and characters with them! A rare experience indeed in the opera world! They usually get to the school, and the 60 kids have been rehearsing their parts with their music teachers, so they then stage it, rehearse it with the kids, and the next day put on a full performance for the whole school, faculty, parents and anyone else invited to come.
I was fascinated at how well Jonathan Dean (who does all of Seattle Opera's super-titles) was able to translate Wagner to an elementary level. I don't know the story very well anyhow, but as I watched the show, I was also watching our kids and the others in the audience, and was amazed at how they seemed to understand it! Several times throughout the performance, I asked Madeline, our 2 year-old, questions about what was going on. Her answers showed me even she got the basics of the story!
For those of you who have never heard of Wagner or his ring, it shares similar story-lines as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, lest I offend any operatic folk, I mean that it hails to the making of the ring, the fighting over it's power, changing the holder of it, etc.. The basic story as I saw it for the adaptation, is that Siegfried, who does not understand fear, must go on a journey to break the Fire-god's ring of fire, save the Earth-Goddess and free Brunnhilde, a Valkyrie and daughter of Wotan, the fire-god. In doing so, he kills the dragon, finds the ring, gives it to Brunnhilde, and they then fall in love. Thus ends the 3rd Act.
The performance was fantastic, and the kids loved it, from the music to the slaying of the dragon, they were enthralled! Hobbes, our son, kept asking if they were going to kill the dragon, and then after the dragon was dead, he wanted to know if it would be 'put back-together?'. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their faces as much as the opera itself, and I am excited to take them to more!