"Anything you can sing, I can sing lower," declared Grizzelino, a bear puppet before a crowd of 80 small children and their parents at the Arbutus Library last week.

"I can sing anything lower than you," he sang in a deep baritone to the tune of Irving Berlin's "Anything You Can Do," from the 1946 Broadway musical, "Annie Get Your Gun."

"No, you can't!" snapped his opera-singing companion, Grizzelina, in her clear soprano.

"Yes, I can," he sang.

An outreach program from the Lyric Opera Baltimore, "Opera Bears" sought to educate youngsters about opera June 7 in a large meeting room at the library, 855 Sulphur Spring Road.

The program was an anonymous gift from one of the library's patrons.

Grizzelina lost the first round of the singing competition as Baltimore resident Jason Buckwalter's voice fell lower and lower as he played Grizzelino.

But she refused to be concede.

"I can sing anything higher than you," countered Lara Bruckmann, a Baltimore resident who played Grizzelina, her voice trilling higher than her male competitor's could reach.

A couple of minutes later, keyboardist Andrew Stewart, a Baltimore resident, had to intercede.

"Enough with bickering," he said. "The thing about opera is everybody sings together, so you don't have to compete like this. So just kiss and make up and let's move on."

"Kiss?" cried Grizzelina in mock horror.

"No!" she said, running away in a room full of laughter.

Together, the bears entertained their audience with a number of songs, eventually teaching them a short dance.

"It's a perfect combination to expose children to different things," said Librarian Kimberly Preis. "The arts are certainly something that libraries are passionate about aside from books.

"In this economy, it's lovely that somebody would be willing to donate, to be so generous," she said.

Catonsville resident Megan Marcin, who brought her daughter, Madeline, 4, said she thought the program was "great."

"It's not really something we've been exposed to before, so I think it was a nice introduction to opera," she said. "The puppets were interactive, so that's always attention getting for the kids."

Allyson Peters, a friend of Marcin's who also lives in Catonsville, brought her daughter, Campbell, 5.

Campbell said she found the singers' voices "loud" and liked it when Grizzelina came out into the audience.

"It was really a nice change, something different for the kids to be exposed to," Peters said. "It showed them that there are varying forms of music."

Buckwalter, who does outreach shows at area schools and sings in the chorus of the Lyric Opera, said performing for children is a "blast."

"It's always nice to see their faces light up," he said. "Even in the rowdy bunches, you get the ones who aren't paying attention, but there's always kids who are really into it and really enjoying it — and that's always rewarding.

"These were great kids," said Buckwalter, describing how the show wouldn't usually be performed for children as young as the 2- to 5-year-olds at last week's session at the library.

"The parents were so involved too, which was wonderful," he said.

Catonsville resident Christine Barrett attended with her daughter, Lilah, 2, and her in-laws, Ellen and Joe Barrett.

"My daughter absolutely loves music," she said. "So I thought it was a great way to introduce some opera."

Typically, 2-year-olds have short attention spans and will run around, but Lilah stayed seated for most of the performance, Christine Barrett said.

"She was very mesmerized and interested in what was going on in the action," she said.

Catonsville resident Julia Vidmar brought the girls she babysits – Arbutus residents Grayson, 5, Annie, 2 and Samantha Corzine, 3.

"I was very impressed by the quality of the singing first of all, and the entertainment that reached both the adults and children," Vidmar said. "And also just the fact that it's bringing this art form to children in a likeable way."

Vidmar compared the program to the way old Warner Brothers cartoons often incorporated classical music alongside characters such asBugs Bunny.

"It's a great little cultural event," she said. "We were all laughing. I found myself kind of getting into it with them."