When a major grant from The Wallace Foundation enabled Seattle Opera to expand its Young Artists Program from 10 weeks to nine months, the company created a school-residency program, “Opera Goes To School,” aimed at grades K-8. Following a week of intense in-class preparation by talented local teaching artists, students at each school would join the Young Artists for hour-long performances, in English, of fully-staged operas. The first opera to hit the road was The Magic Flute: A Hero’s Quest, an adaptation of Mozart’s masterpiece by Perry Lorenzo and Tony Curry. Lawrence Brownlee, who was in the program that first extended season, sang Tamino’s “Dies Bildnis”—and at each school a group of little kids sang Lorenzo’s Dr. Seuss-esque lyrics to Papageno’s “Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja” right back to him!