The Educational Impact of A Lifetime in Repertoire

As I read about the History of Musical Theater, early productions to which Musical Theater draws it's roots speak out to me. Works like A Beggar's Opera/Three Penny Opera and even the beginnings of Pygmalion show their educational value not only aesthetically, but also as a teaching tool for students to trace the foundations of Musical Theater and even the foundations of popular music today. 

I could see myself, as an educator, wanting to delve into a journey collectively with my students in a study of first Greek "Musical Theater" then Beggar's Opera, then the rarely performed Offenbach works including Orpheus and the Underworld, stepping to productions of Galatea to later works of Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. How much learning would go into such a journey!! Not only artistic skills such as singing, acting or movement, but also historic impacts of how these pieces related to their audiences. 

When I started this post, I thought that my question would be how to keep that kind of journey fresh to students. I can trace within my private teaching my growth as an educator through the repertoire that I teach. As my students grow, I grow with them in how I teach as well as what I teach. But in a general music situation, I see the same age/stage year after year, and I need to find a way to keep that fresh. But now I see it. That's the learning unit - to trace Musical Theater from Greek to present day. It could be made inderdiscplinary by asking students to recreate the context the type of performance space and the news events surrounding it.