Tahitian Luau and school Graduation- June 2011

The end of the year graduation celebration was a huge success, thanks to all of the teachers, students and staff who contributed to the program. The students created and performed skits, the chorus sang French songs, students recited poems, delivered moving speeches, played band music, and received certificates and awards.

After the graduation ceremony, the festivities began! Emilia, the school's chef, prepared a luau-themed lunch for all to enjoy, including a pièce montée dessert in the shape of the Eiffel Tower: simply delicious and beautiful! Entertainment was provided as a magician performed in the school's playground, mesmerizing the children and getting many laughs. It was a wonderful closure to the school year, to be surrounded by the friends and families of the school in celebration of the children and their accomplishments.

Bonne vacances a tous!

Poetry Café

The Poetry Cafe of l'Ecole Francaise du Maine met after lunch time this week in the 4-5-6 grade class. English Language Arts Teacher, Bonnie Hannigan, treated her students with delicious snacks and drinks. Each student read aloud his/her compositions of quatrain, cinquain, alexandrain, Haiku and/or limerick to their poetry enthusiast classmates. The atmosphere at the Cafe is joyful, busy, brilliant and contemplative; you can sit and laugh while nursing a juice and a brownie. The class hosted an 8th grade poet who came to share her original writings. Parents are welcome to attend the next reading session.

Merrill Auditorium, Portland, July 28, 2011, 7:30 pm
Pre-performance lecture by company dramaturg
Calien Lewis one hour before the show

An opera filled with sensory pleasures, The Daughter of the Regiment is the sophisticated story of a young girl raised by a regiment in Napoleon’s army. It’s an opera filled with improbable and hilarious situations as it spins the charming love story of the “daughter” meeting her first lover. One of the outstanding examples of the bel canto (beautiful song) repertoire, the opera features many brilliant arias and ensembles, including the famous tenor aria with nine high Cs.
An evening of musical entertainment you won't forget!

Ashley Emerson grew up in Bangor, Maine. She got the opera “bug” singing in the PORTopera chorus of Lucia di Lammermoor in 2003. She enrolled in the USM School of Music and was selected to be a PORTopera Young Artist and appeared in other PORTopera productions. She then entered and won the important Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition and was immediately invited to the prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Program of the Metropolitan Opera. She has subsequently sung at the Met, Seattle Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, and others and will debut in the title role in The Daughter of the Regiment at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in May and June.