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After months of coordinating stage construction, perfecting actors' delivery and promoting the event through various media outreach efforts, Michael Liriano and his classmates were ready to see their opera production hit the stage Monday at Sligo Creek Elementary school.

Liriano, who worked on the opera with 14 other third-grade writers, peeked into the gym where the all-student orchestra, with xylophone players and percussionists, tapped out a simple beat for the singers to follow as the red stage-light danced across the colorful background scene, also constructed by students.

In fact, third graders took on every task from costume design to public relations and set construction for the elementary school's performance of "Sabotage at Le Camp D'espionnage."

"The Washington National Opera gives us training to show us how it's done. Then the rest of it is up to them," said third-grade teacher Louise Kelley, watching her students with a delighted smile. "The rule is no adults backstage."

This is the second year the school has participated in the Washington National Opera-sponsored Creating Original Opera program along with nine other schools in Montgomery County. Students are given up to a year to apply for jobs, coordinate building the set, write scripts and compose music before the first performance for parents and classmates, according to Sligo Creek music teacher Mary Hochkeppel, who has coordinated the event both years.

"I was really pleased because it's quite the endeavor to encompass 120 students into the production," she said following the opening performance. "It's cross-curricular education because students are measuring 2-by-4's, they're studying electricity and ohms in their science class, so they're learning about [their opera job] in classes at the same time."

The opera follows a group of English and French-speaking kids who are preparing to attend a spy camp. After a missing BlackBerry sparks mistrust between the groups, they learn to team up and use their spy skills to locate the device. A minor love story also develops between a boy in the English group and a girl in the French group. The school has a French-immersion program, which prompted the bilingual approach.

Of course, putting on an opera is no small task for a group of 8- and 9-year-olds, but Production Manager Pierre Moglen, 8, seemed ready for anything on opening day. The energetic student ran from classmate to classmate on the gym floor, preparing them for their next tasks and coordinating backstage efforts throughout the 30-minute performance.

"I probably liked being backstage doing the curtains, doing the lights and working with the actors the most," he said. "That was really, really fun because I would work with the carpenters and the stage managers and everybody."

Eamon McKeever, 9, and Andrew Gerbasi, 8, handled public relations, including sending press releases to local newspapers and organizations, for the opera group titled, Bright Shining Stars Kids Opera Company.

"Our theme of the opera is spying, so we're [maybe] going to get a visit from the Spy Museum and we might get an ad in the Washington Post," Gerbasi said excitedly, listing some of the numerous contacts he and his fellow students had made.

For Andrew's mother, Virginia Gerbasi, the performance was the culmination of the hard work she's watched her son take on over the last two months.

"It may be a little difficult to follow [at times]," she said of the script with a chuckle. "But for the parents, it's a complete joy because we all know that they did every little thing by themselves."