Gaetano Donizetti wrote a remarkable series of operas for Naples during the mid-1830s, many based upon English history or literature, until the censorship of the city finally became too oppressive. Beginning in 1839 he took up residence in Paris and Vienna, where he largely remained until mental illness (brought on by syphillis) ended his career in 1845. Roberto Devereux has long been considered one of his finest Neapolitan works, a full-blooded Romantic opera in the tradition of Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor. Listen to Philip Gossett discuss the complicated history of Roberto Devereux (its overture and two musical numbers, for example, were prepared for a Parisian revival), but it will mostly concentrate on understanding Donizetti's mature Italian style.

Puccini's La bohème, opera's quintessential portrait of romance, is a feast of lyric melodies, intense emotion and dramatic spectacle. The forces of infidelity, jealousy and terminal illness conspire against the pursuit of freedom, beauty and love, but fail in the end. Daniel Freeman takes us through this masterpiece where a tragic couple encounters the harshness of reality: a relationship in the time of "free love" espoused by the Bohemians of 19^th century Paris is easily initiated but difficult to conclude due to emotional attachments often provoked.

Richard Strauss's Salome scandalized critics but swept away audiences at its premiere in 1906 and subsequent performances. The luscious orchestration captures the danger of sensuality in a radical adaptation of Richard Wagner's ideas for music drama. This lecture, lead by Karen Painter, University of Minnesota musicologist, explores the historical context of the celebrated Salome figure in the decades around 1900 and the bold innovations in the opera has remained perhaps the most important contribution to musical modernism.