Page 65 - Glasbenopedagoški zbornik Akademije za glasbo v Ljubljani

themselves in the story and follow it through to the end. They had verbal rea-
ctions as: ‘wow’, ‘oh’, ‘look, it is snowing’ and they remained still and quiet af-
ter the changes, establishing focused eye contact with the stage.
It was also felt that they were following the plot twists and turns, which
were resolved with a song of the whole choir and soloists at the end, which ma-
naged to tie the whole action on stage and in the hall together with harmony.
During the performance, the children were mostly quiet, occasionally
moving to the music and sighing audibly. At the more tense moments of the
story, some of them ‘stiffened’ a little and leaned forward. Occasionally they
became a little restless, especially during the longer scenes. Most of the chil-
dren were smiling, occasionally looking at each other and commenting on the
action on stage. There was also some restlessness and chatter, but most children
were observant and focused on the performance on the stage.
Analysis of children’s drawings
(drawn in the school approximately one week after attending the opera).

Immersion and attention
To understand the level of immersion and attention from the children’s
drawings we looked at the number of main characters, elements of the scenery,
elements of the performance (the presence of the orchestra, snowing, surtitles, Katarina Kompan Erzar, Katarina Habe ◆ THE CAPACITY OF YOUTH OPERA TO ENHANCE THE EMOTIONAL SKILLS OF YOUNGER ADOLESCENTS
the hall full of children watching, the conductor). We were also curious if the
elements of songs would be present in the drawings.
In the drawings the main characters of the opera were prevailing (Kekec,
Mojca, Bedanec, Nightwatch, Kosobrin, the children). The emotional expressi-
ons of the characters were evident and clear. Children were able to recognize
the main attitude of each of them. The characters in the drawings were mo-
stly static; only one drawing shows movement. Many drawings show the whole
hall, the stage, the curtain, the seats for the audience, the orchestra, the condu-
ctor, even the surtitles. Besides the main characters and the set, there were also
many scenery details in the drawings such as mountains, houses, and snowfla-
kes. On some drawings the characters from the song about ‘Pehta’ and the bee
were also present, even if ‘Pehta’ in person was not present at all in the opera.
It was evident that the children noticed many details and that the whole expe-
rience got their attention.

Emotional expression
For capturing emotional expression from the drawings, we observed colours,
intensity and the power of the stroke. We also observed the position of the
drawing on the sheet of paper and the composition. The overriding emotion is
one of joy and interest, which is felt through the details of the story depicted
in the drawings by strong strokes, use of clear and bright colours, and large
and detailed figures. The drawings are drawn on the whole sheet, the figures

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