(Ger.: ‘school opera’).
A German opera written for didactic use in schools; its suitability for performance by children is a secondary consideration. Early examples, which belong more strictly to the category of ‘school drama’, derived from 15th-century humanism and concentrated on religious training and the teaching of Latin; music was confined to choruses and short interludes. Although Singspiele were written for children during the 18th and 19th centuries, the Schuloper belongs to the 20th century. Interest in the idea was reawakened in the late 1920s through the influential musical Jugendbewegung and through the concern for amateur music shown by leading contemporary composers. The pedagogic content concentrated on the teaching of music, drama and a community spirit. The most important examples are Weill’s Der Jasager (1930), which also encouraged political thinking, and Hindemith’s Wir bauen eine Stadt (1930), the latter well suited to performance by children in junior and middle schools.
See also Gebrauchsmusik.
MGG1 (‘Schuldrama’; K.-G. Hartmann and J. Bužga)
RiemannL12
K. Weill: Ausgewählte Schriften (Frankfurt, 1975), 61ff
IAN KEMP