VIDEO: Washington National Opera Streams SLOPERA! A Bite-Sized Opera For Kids Next Month

SLOPERA! A Bite-Sized Opera is based on Mo Willems' book I Really Like Slop! that brings Elephant and Piggie to a place they've always belonged: the opera! Elephant and Piggie are best friends, but what happens to besties when they find out they might not be able to share everything together? Do friends have to like all the same things?

The performance is recommended for those aged 3+.

SLOPERA! A Bite-Sized Opera is based on Mo Willems' book I Really Like Slop! that brings Elephant and Piggie to a place they've always belonged: the opera! An opera uses music and theater to tell a story. In most operas, the actors sing almost all of their lines. While opera can be made with all kinds of musical styles, operas often use classical singing and tell stories that include big, BIG emotions, or feelings, like utter despair and total joy. Elephant and Piggie will show us how high and low their voices and their feelings can go!

Piggie shares a lot about pig culture with her friend in this show: her connection to Swineland; her love for her Oma (a German word for grandmother); and, of course, a traditional pig food, slop! Sadly, Gerald does not love slop the way she does. It can hurt when you share something special with a friend and they do not like it or they think it is weird. In the Slopera!, Elephant and Piggie must figure out how to appreciate each other's differences. Maybe they will find out that trying new things doesn't mean you have to like every new thing.

This opera performance is approximately 20 minutes long and performed live on the Washington National Opera mobile pop-up truck in different locations across DC, Maryland, and Virginia. The truck folds out into a mini-stage, with stairs on both sides and a plastic divider in the center.

Two opera singers perform as Mo Willems' characters Elephant and Piggie. Elephant opera singer is dressed in a black tuxedo and wears large gray elephant ears. Piggie opera singer is dressed in a long green dress and wears a pink headband with small pig ears. The singers use a slop puppet-a blue bowl with green fabric inside that bounces out to represent slop. While performing, the singers often move on and off the stage. A pianist accompanies the performance.

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