Active Listening Opera Performance: Šuma Striborova (The Stribor’s Forest) Opera

An opera is a complex, multidisciplinary, stage music genre that primary school pupils in the 8th grade aurally and visually recognize, differentiate, describe, and compare as part of the primary school subject Music Culture. The paper presents the contribution of the preparation and performance of an opera on the case study of Ivan Josip Skender's Šuma Striborova (The Stribor's Forest), an opera for adults and children (to the libretto by Ozren Prohić, based on the fairy tale of the same name written by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić) performed by the pupils of the Bartul Kašić Primary School in Zadar, in July 2023. It is an innovative and unique project in Croatia designed to bring opera closer to young people. The paper presents the Curriculum for the subject of Music for both primary and high schools in the Republic of Croatia, where the case study analysis methodology presents the outcomes within three domains: A – Listening and getting to know music, B – Expressing yourself through music and with music, and C – Music in context, which are realized by participating in the performance of an opera. Furthermore, there are also tasks (material, functional, and educational) that are realized through musical activities such as opera production. The contribution of this work is the possibility and presentation of the pupils’ performance of the ballet and puppet show the Šuma Striborova opera through active listening. During such a performance, the recipients are also active, while the audience reacts to the music and action. Through active listening, one is brought up aesthetically and grows both personally and culturally.