In Response to the Ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, the Met’s HD Live in Schools Series Launches 2020–21 Virtual Programming

The program, which uses opera to help enrich educational studies, reaches approximately 15,000 elementary, middle, and high school students

All students and teachers will receive free subscriptions to Met Opera on Demand, the Met’s extensive streaming catalogue of Live in HD presentations, classic telecasts, and radio broadcasts

               New York, NY (October 1, 2020)—In response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Metropolitan Opera’s HD Live in Schools program has launched a new, all-online series for the 2020–21 school year, creating cross-disciplinary educational opportunities for students across the country.

In previous years, the Met has provided free tickets for students and teachers to attend the Met’s Live in HD cinema transmissions. For the 2020–21 school year, however, all students and teachers will receive free subscriptions to the Met Opera on Demand streaming service, with a catalogue of more than 700 Live in HD presentations, classic telecasts, and radio broadcasts. Ten operas have been selected for the 2020–21 HD Live in Schools program, and they will be presented in a series of five educational units, with two thematically paired operas per unit. The series opens with Beethoven’s Fidelio and Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment (September 28–October 16), both of which explore the intersection of music and politics. The paired operas also include Philip Glass’s Akhnaten and John Adams’s Doctor Atomic (October 19–November 13), comparing depictions of two historical figures in different eras; Lehár’s The Merry Widow and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (January 25–February 12), discussing women and relationships in 19th-century society; Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Massenet’s Werther (February 22–March 12), discovering opera as a form of literary adaptation; and Strauss’s Elektra and Berg’s Lulu (March 22–April 9), examining cultural changes in the early 20th century.

The Met will continue to offer teachers and administrators specially designed HD Live in Schools Educator Guides that include extensive background information on each opera as well as cross-curricular activities and lessons that make connections to music and the arts, humanities, and STEM subjects. The Educator Guides have been revised in order to include activities and resources for a range of ages, from age 8 to college students. In addition to the Educator Guides, teachers and administrators will receive access to Google Classroom materials that can be adapted for virtual learning lesson plans.

The Met’s annual National Educators Conference, a professional development initiative that brings together teachers and administrators from across the United States, will be hosted on a virtual platform this year. The conference will take place on five Saturdays throughout the 2020–21 school year and will help educators identify and cultivate strategies for incorporating opera into their classrooms through best practices and teaching methods. Two conferences, scheduled for October 10, 2020, and October 17, 2020, will also feature live, virtual conversations with Met artists. First, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and composer Kenyatta Hughes will discuss their ongoing artistic collaboration in a conversation hosted by actor and broadcaster Susan Blackwell. Then, director Peter Sellars will also talk with Blackwell, covering his experience as an arts educator and his work on John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, one of the featured operas in the 2020–21 lineup.

Now in its 14th year, the HD Live in Schools program reaches approximately 15,000 students across 56 school districts in 42 states. Two new school districts have joined the program this year: Detroit Public Schools Community District in Detroit, Michigan, and Topeka Public Schools USD 501 in Topeka, Kansas. A full list of partner school districts can be found below.

The 2020–21 virtual programming for HD Live in Schools builds on the exceptional success of the Met’s Free Student Streams and Global Summer Camp. Launched in April 2020 and continuing throughout the 2020–21 school year, the Free Student Streams offer a free opera stream and educational guides for students and educators each week. Since the program’s launch, more than 70,000 students and educators in more than 30 countries have viewed the streams. The eight-week Global Summer Camp, which explored an opera each week in summer 2020 with virtual programming such as arts and crafts and conversations with Met artists, included over 3,400 participants from 70 countries. The HD Live in Schools program will also expand school district partnerships internationally in the 2020–21 academic year.

More information about HD Live in Schools and Met Education programming can be found at metopera.org/education.

HD Live in Schools Partner School Districts, 2020-21

Anchorage Public Schools                                         Anchorage, Alaska

Tuscaloosa Public Schools                                         Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Tucson Public Schools                                               Tucson, Arizona

Oakland Unified School District                                Emeryville, California

San Diego Unified School District                            San Diego, California

Academy School District 20                                      Colorado Springs, Colorado

Jefferson County School District                               Denver, Colorado

Duval County Public Schools                                    Jacksonville, Florida

Atlanta Public Schools                                               Atlanta, Georgia

Hawaii Public/’Iolani School                                     Honolulu, Hawaii

Sioux City Community Schools                                 Sioux City, Iowa

Moscow School District                                             Moscow, Idaho

Glenbard District 87                                                   Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Reimagining Opera for Kids                                      Bloomington, Indiana

Topeka Public Schools USD 501                               Topeka, Kansas

Oldham County Schools                                             Buckner, Kentucky

New Orleans Center for Creative Arts                       New Orleans, Louisiana

Montgomery County Public Schools                         Rockville, Maryland

Bangor Public Schools                                               Bangor, Maine

Detroit Public Schools Community District              Detroit, Michigan

Elk River Area Schools                                              Elk River, Minnesota

Columbia Public Schools                                           Columbia, Missouri

Helena Public Schools                                                Helena, Montana

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools                     Charlotte, North Carolina

Fargo Public Schools                                                  Fargo, North Dakota

Lincoln Public Schools                                              Lincoln, Nebraska

SAU 1 & 29                                                                Keene, New Hampshire

Scotch Plains-Fanwood Public Schools                     Scotch Plains, New Jersey

New Brunswick Public Schools                                 New Brunswick, New Jersey

Albuquerque Public Schools                                      Albuquerque, New Mexico

Clark County School District                                     Las Vegas, Nevada

Washoe County School District                                 Reno, Nevada

Bethpage-Sayville Schools Districts                          Bethpage, New York

Bethlehem Central School District                            Albany, New York

Buffalo Public Schools                                               Buffalo, New York

New York City Department of Education                  New York, New York

Dayton Public Schools                                               Dayton, Ohio

Tulsa Public Schools                                                  Tulsa, Oklahoma

North Clackamas Schools                                          Milwaukie, Oregon

North Hills School District                                        Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Erie School District                                                    Erie, Pennsylvania

Dorchester District 2                                                  Summerville, South Carolina

West Central School District                                     Hartford, South Dakota

Shelby County Schools                                              Memphis, Tennessee

Fort Worth Independent School District                    Forth Worth, Texas

San Antonio Independent School District                  San Antonio, Texas

Dallas Independent School District                           Dallas, Texas

South Burlington Schools                                          South Burlington, Vermont

Governor’s School for the Arts                                  Norfolk, Virginia

Ocean Beach School District                                     Long Beach, Washington

Northshore School District                                        Seattle, Washington

Manitowoc School District                                        Manitowoc, Wisconsin

Sheridan School District #2                                        Sheridan, Wyoming