Description
Join us for a wonderful opera season this Winter. We begin the Winter MET HD season with Bellini’s last opera “I Puritani” (The Puritans). Based on the feud between the Stuarts and the Cavaliers, Bellini fills this opera with great melodies i.e. the Soprano’s 2 mad scenes, the tenor’s act one aria “A the, o cara” ending with a high C sharp, and the rousing tenor/baritone duet “Suoni la tromba”. We next move to Rossini’s “Ermione” (Hermione). Greek Tragedy is the source for Rossini’s 1819 tale of passion and murder. Typical of Rossini with its arias, duets, this opera startles with its use of a chorus behind the curtain during the overture. In February the Metropolitan Opera is presenting in HD Jules Massemet’s Fairy-tale “Cendrillon”. Based on the original story by Charles Perrault, Rossini’s gentle score takes us from a ballroom to a fairy domaine with love triumphant at the end. Our March HD performance is Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”. At first this opera was declared unperformable. Wagner’s music stretched the ability of singers, musicians and the audience. From the very beginning the the music searches for resting spot, only to achieved at the very end in the famous Liebestod. Such passionate music unleashed the expansion of musical expression beyond traditional tonality.
David Collins has been lecturing on opera in the greater Boston area for over 25 years. He had been Opera Boston’s resident lecturer for 8 years. He has given opera courses at MIT, Regis College, The Boston Center for Adult Education and The Cambridge Center for Adult Education as well as lecturing at Northeastern University. Dave is currently a trustee of The Boston Wagner Association. Dave received his Bachelor degree from Boston University’s School of Music, his Master’s from Lesley University and did post grad work at the New England Conservatory and the University of Connecticut – Hart School of Music.
PLEASE NOTE: This class begins on 1/6 and will meet on 1/20, 2/10, and 3/17
