Two years ago, the College of Fine Arts at Wichita State University had the opportunity to interact with renowned America opera composer Carlisle Floyd for a week while producing his opera "Susannah." This year, the college will be able to participate in five nationally streamed question-and-answer seminars tracing the creation of Floyd's new opera, "Prince of Players."

Floyd, who has composed operas since 1949, has participated in question-and-answer sessions with opera students across the country for several years, sharing the wealth of knowledge he has gained during the course of his career.

“Students seem to get so much out of it,” says Jane Matheny, who works as a producer with Floyd. “They get to tap the brain of an opera legend.”

After seeing the positive feedback from so many universities, Matheny wanted to make the Q&A sessions accessible for a larger number of people. The idea to have Floyd interact with multiple schools at once turned into something even bigger - - a live seminar showcasing the steps to creating an opera, from the first script writing session to the final performance.

The seminar, “Masters at Work: Crafting an Opera with Carlisle Floyd,” will include five sessions, aired live from New York, during the 2015-16 school year. These seminars will be “attended” by five universities through Google Hangout, enabling students to ask questions about the creative process and receive live responses. Wichita State University was one of five schools selected to be included on the live stream.

“We have a number of students who are creating their own material,” says Marie King, director of opera at Wichita State. “It’s a great opportunity to talk to a master artist about the work they are creating and his methods of working.”

The first seminar, which takes place Friday, Sept. 25, will follow the process of creating the libretto, or the opera script. Students will interact with Floyd and other opera professionals, learning more about the foundation of an opera.

“Students can learn from a living composer about how he goes about the process and what his thoughts are,” Matheny says. “They’ll hear how he gets out of places when he gets stuck.”

The schedule for the following seminars includes:

• Friday, Nov. 13: Piano Vocal and Workshops. This seminar will look at the creation of the piano-vocal score, the music to accompany the script. During this stage of the process a workshop is conducted with the singers and the director. They listen to the music and are given the opportunity to comment and make adjustments as they see fit.
• Friday, Jan. 15: Orchestrating. This seminar looks at the creation of the orchestral score. This develops the music further, writing in parts for every instrument in the orchestra.
• Friday, March 18: Design and Creative Team. This seminar covers the creative design process, and will bring in the creative designers who are working to set the costumes and stage for Floyd’s opera.
• Friday, April 15: Rehearsal/Performance. This seminar will conclude the development of the opera, and students will be able to see pieces of the finished product.

All seminars will be streamed at noon on http://bit.ly/1LOBBSI, and will be stored on the Opera America website for future viewing.

“It’s getting our students involved and thinking about the creative process,” King says. “It should help put a national spotlight on our program.”