The Lyric Opera of Chicago selected St. Frances of Rome School in Cicero as the first ever Catholic school to participate in its Elementary Opera Residency program.

As part of the program, students took to the stage on Sept. 23 to perform “Slay the Dragon,” an original opera they wrote about a dragon slayer.

The Lyric Opera program is part of the school’s efforts to engage students through experiential learning programs, said Phillip Jackson, principal of St. Frances of Rome.

It was a surprise and an honor to be selected after a rigorous application and interview process, said Jackson, who has a background in theater.

“The Lyric is having such a good experience,” he said. “I can see more of our Catholic schools doing this residency program.”

St. Frances of Rome students have taken field trips to Lyric Opera in the past, so they’re familiar with the genre.

Lauren Ingebrigtsen, teaching artist at the Lyric Opera, worked with St. Frances of Rome teacher Hilda Vasquez and the students over 13 Tuesday and Thursday sessions since the beginning of the school year and introduced them to what opera is and skills such as articulation and how to breathe to project their voices on stage.

Next, the students chose a folktale about a dragon slayer that they wanted to turn into an opera. Just as with any performance, there were auditions and  rehearsals and costumes had to be made and lines learned.

It’s an exciting time at St. Frances of Rome, Jackson said, because enrollment is on the upswing after the school was slated for closure by the archdiocese in 2024. The school stayed open after the archdiocese; Big Shoulders Fund; St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds Parish, where the school is located; and the parish’s sharing parish, St. Anne in Barrington, united in their commitment to support the school for five years.

Jackson said the school takes advantage of programs such as the Lyric residency to give students opportunities to experience new things.

“These are the kinds of things we are bringing to the community,” he said. “Our parents love it. Our kids love it.”

Jackson said the school plans to continue looking for opportunities for experiential learning.

“I mean, do you want to read about the opera or do you want to put one on?” Jackson said.

Ingebrigtsen was excited about working with a Catholic school.

“We started with the Big Shoulders Fund and we expanded from Chicago Public Schools to include Catholic schools as well,” she said. “I think it was a great choice, because this is such an involved community, such an involved staff.”

Each school tailors its residency to a particular curricular focus such as math or science, she said, but one thing is constant.

“A lot of times, it’s the first time they are stepping on stage in front of an audience, which is a big, big moment, and a life skill,” Ingebrigtsen said. “I really get to watch them come together as a team. This is one of those things that doesn’t get done unless everybody has the same buy-in, so it’s a big, big teamwork activity.”

Students also get to engage their creativity and imagination.

“As adults, I think sometimes we don’t have the chance to engage in imagination and that kind of play,” she said. “I think it’s so important because imagination is how we conceive of the future and how we dream of a better world. If we can teach kids to do that from a very young age, we are building a better world.”

The students even sang some songs in Italian, which they picked up quickly, Ingebrigtsen said.

“Arts like this help us step into the shoes of somebody else,” Ingebrigtsen said. “That’s sort of exercising our empathy muscles.”

Both Ingebrigtsen and Vasquez said students responded quickly to learning about opera and preparing the performance.

“As soon as they started practicing with Miss Lauren, they opened up,” Vasquez said. “I learned more about them and they learned more about themselves. Now they are reading books in a different way.”

Arts programs have lasting impacts on students, she added.

“The arts are so important because they bring different talents and strengths that the students don’t know that they have,” she said.