Courses of Study
Like our Study Days, courses allow for a more detailed examination of selected areas of opera performance, style, and substance. Courses take place over a sequential multi-week period as our lecturers guide
audiences through the exploration of a particular subject. To purchase a full course package, click on the course title. To purchase individual sessions, click on the session date.
Events are held in the Opera Learning Center, on the 6th floor of the Samuel B. and David Rose Building at Lincoln Center.
Upcoming courses:
Flavors of Puccini
Wednesdays, October 31, November 7 & 14, 2–3:30PM
Presented by Jane Marsh Flavors of Puccini, led by Jane Marsh, will take you on a
tour of some of Puccini’s most iconic works. From the California Gold Rush of
1849 to the European locales of Il Trittico—with a stop in Tosca’s Rome along
the way—this course, which features 11 singers, will take audiences through the
vivid settings that inspired some of Puccini’s most compelling masterpieces.
Full course registration: $72 public | $60 Guild members
and students
Individual session registration: $25 public | $22 Guild members
and students
Tuesdays January 22, 29, February 5 & 12, 2-3:30PM
Presented by Matthew Timmermans a
Undeniably the largest and most ambitious creation in the
operatic repertoire, Wagner’s Ring cycle demands more from its singers than any
other work. Since the end of the 19th century, performers have surmounted these
demands in a variety of different ways. In this four-part series, lecturer
Matthew Timmermans will explore the different ways opera singers across
multiple generations have performed the Ring throughout the past century.
Full course registration: $96 public | $80 Guild members
and students
Individual session registration: $25 public | $22 Guild members
and students
Wednesdays, April 17 & 24, May 8, 11AM-12:30PM
Presented by Ira Siff
The Met’s 2018–19 season features some of opera’s most
notorious villains and the unfortunate characters who suffer at their hands.
Willful victimization is a consistent theme in operatic repertoire and provides
some of the art form’s most iconic moments. Audiences have long been enthralled
by the lustful Scarpia’s deadly pursuit of Tosca, Dalila’s seductive undoing of
Samson, and Turandot’s callous torture of Liù. In this three-part course,
Metropolitan Opera Radio commentator Ira Siff leads us on a musical journey
through the hearts, minds, and music of the doers of dastardly operatic deeds.
Full course
registration: $72 public | $60 Guild members and students
Renata Tebaldi was
an Italian soprano, who has been said to have possessed one of the
most beautiful voices of the 20th century. Conductor Arturo Toscanini called
her "voce d'angelo" (voice of an angel). Tebaldi was
trained and concentrated on roles of the late Verdi and
Verismo eras, where only a minimal use of florid technique belonged to her
repertoire.
Dame Joan Sutherland was an Australian
dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of
the bel canto repertoire
from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She possessed a voice of great
facility and power, combining extraordinary agility and a tremendous upper
register. Her colleague Luciano Pavarotti once
called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century".
Join Jane
Marsh as she celebrates the artistic longevity and illuminating greatness of
Renata Tebaldi and Joan Sutherland who brought legendary vocal distinction and
individuality to their respective areas of operatic expertise-Verdi, Verismo,
and Bel Canto.
Individual session registration: $30 public | $25 Guild members and students