Organizer #5: Researching THE MERRY WIDOW

You will work in your character groups to create a research presentation that fulfills the following requirements:

1. Utilize three or more Internet sites to develop an educational presentation for the entire class on one or more of the topics listed below:

• 19th-century Paris
  
  
• Franz Lehár's life
  
  
• Franz Lehár's works
  
  
• a general history of opera/operetta
  
  
• 19th-century dress/costumes
  
  
• 19th-century attitudes and morals
  
  
• Maxim's
  

Your teacher will give you URLs for some Web sites with which to start your research.


2. Use presentation software to make a five-minute presentation on your topic to the class on ________________. The presentation must answer the general questions outlined below as specifically as possible.

• Develop informational handouts on your topic for the rest of the class.
  
  
• Create a concrete, real-world example or template of some aspect of the research topic chosen. For example, if your group is looking into the costumes chosen by Lehár, you might want to duplicate design plans for a certain costume. Or if your group is researching Maxim's and other popular haunts of 19th-century Paris, you might decide to make a model stage set.
  
  

General Research Questions

1. How specifically does your topic relate to THE MERRY WIDOW?

2. What 10 points are most important to know about your topic?

3. How does the information about your topic help us understand THE MERRY WIDOW?

4. What two things were most surprising to learn about your topic?