The first time I thought about using opera as a resource to teach children literacy I believed in the potential of the greatest works of art to trigger emotions; and this was related to the concept of writing imbued in my convictions. It seems obvious to me that we cannot conceive the act of learning to read and write as dissociated from the realm of ideas, therefore, I believe that the act of reading and writing must be associated to the realm of emotions. This changes the way you look, and the quality of what you can reach is much higher.

Not all literate individuals reach this level. Not everyone who can read and write possesses what we call the “gift” of knowing how to put everything they feel on paper in a transparent and clear fashion – today being a writer is a profession. I believe that this is in fact a deficiency in the way they were taught literacy, that is, this is due to a poor or flawed conception of learning.

Hence the power of opera - as children who learn literacy knowing that the reason we learn to write is to express feelings will never take the winding path of writings that don’t make any sense or mechanical, heavy, non-sense texts. In my opinion, something that may be, therefore, considered a refinement or “upgrade” in the function of writing is a departure point, not an arrival point.

The opera is the best tool to teach writing about feelings in a way that no other form of art can do on its own. It has the emotional power of music, the sense of profoundly engrossing plots, the literature which brings together magical strokes and a profound realism, the dramatisation of scenes inspired by the strength of music and the power of characters that have become icons of universal culture.

Nothing else has such a rich expressive potential. No other resource is so effective in teaching literacy. Once, a very shy child was watching one of the rehearsals of an opera at school. When Turandot entered the scene, she drew back, as one would expect. When asked what she would like to do after the rehearsal, she said: “write”. “Why?”, we asked. “Because I don’t want to talk”, she replied.

At that moment, she realised the meaning of writing.
But not the meaning of writing tasks or ideas.The meaning of writing as a mirror of the soul – the real art of expressing something which would be too heavy, too beautiful, too moving to be said out loud. This is how the artist of the written word feels. He or she writes because they, as a poet would say, “can no longer hold in their chest the horrible sensation of an emotion that engrosses them”, something whose weight of being said out loud would be unbearable for the ears and whose reflection in the echo of the voice would provoke too much angst for someone so sensitive.

And children are sensitive. Therefore, they are capable of using this tool with the propriety and quality of the most competent professionals. And this is not down to an exception or gift, but the ability to dominate a basic tool for someone of their time; a generation that will not need scribes to translate what they feel and that do not accept others trying to teach them what to feel.