Starting this October, students in Jacksonville will get to watch live opera beamed from the Met in New York City to the theater at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.
DA is one of three schools in the country the Met chose for live performance screenings as part of its national “HD Live in Schools” program.
The Met’s Education Director, Marsha Drummond, spoke at Douglas Anderson Thursday.
“We look for motivated teachers and support from principals and superintendents. We want some kind of surety that the program is going to be supported and successful,” Drummond said. “So we have all those indicators in Jacksonville, and it’s just a pleasure to be here.”
Opera is a passion of Douglas Anderson senior Riley Bragg who headlined Thursday’s announcement at the school.
Bragg says she saw several Met productions while she was a student at LaVilla Middle School. She’s thrilled this partnership will give more students that opportunity.
“I’ve seen Carmen and Madame Butterfly and they were really good experiences for me just starting out young because I didn’t know what I was going to do or how far I was going to go with the whole music thing,” Bragg said.
She said, “It definitely was a big influence on me and it helped me shape what I want my life to be.”
DA’s 600-seat theater will get more than $200,000 worth of upgrades and state-of-the-art HD equipment thanks to the efforts of the DuBow Family Foundation and the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.
The Metropolitan Opera opens its new season on October 3 with a production of Othello.
