Abstract

The essay intends to propose and illustrate a guided listening course for children in the final two years of primary school or the first year of middle school. It takes as its object Bizet's "Carmen", in particular the "Seguidilla" and the Duet between Carmen and Don Josè in the first act. Clearly cognitivist in inspiration, the method focuses on a sort of guided heuristic approach - that is, learning through discovery. Involving eight phases and three different sessions of listening, it aims to develop the students' competence with regard to structure; perceptual and analytical ability; "critical sense" (that is, both faculty of judgement and ability to concentrate); and habitual reliance on personal comprehension - all essential objectives of primary education. Given its "multidimensionality" - that is, its combination of poetry, music and drama - opera lends itself to such analysis, to the dismantling and re assembling of the (verbal and musical) text within the context of a wider multidisciplinary understanding. Furthermore, as it is a drama of passions and feelings, opera serves well as an instrument towards sentimental education - that is, as a means towards greater awareness of one's own and other people feelings (something which is often insisted upon in recent educational programmes).