Enhance your 2009-2010 opera-going experience through our

Adult Education Classes.

Special guests from the world of opera will offer in-depth discussions of each production and their areas of expertise. (See below for specific class information.)

All classes are held at The Minnesota Opera Center, 620 North First Street, Minneapolis

Cost:

• $25/person
• $20/subscriber/donor/Tempo member
• $10/student with valid ID (high school/college) to be presented at the door.

Tour the Opera Center prior to every class starting at 6:15 in the lobby. A Tour Guide will show you where costumes are built, sets are designed and rehearsals take place. Click here or call 612-333-6669 to reserve a seat!

Monday, September 14

The Pearl Fishers

After Bizet's sudden death at less than 40 years old, music lovers looked back from Carmen and uncovered another masterpiece, The Pearl Fishers. Again an exotic theme, this time set in Ceylon, with mysterious rites and rivalry. We will explore the world of Bizet B. C. (Before Carmen!) with the help of the Resident Artists, who will perform some excerpts from The Pearl Fishers with master coach and guest lecturer Mary Dibbern at the piano.

Monday, November 9

Casanova’s Homecoming

Composed in 1985 for the Ordway’s opening season Casanova’s Homecoming tells the light-hearted story of the aging Casanova’s return to Venice where old rivals trick him into seducing a castrato, who Casanova discovers is actually a woman in disguise. Explore this fantastic score, based on Casanova’s own memoirs, with Minnesota’s own Pulitzer-Prize wining composer Dominick Argento.

Monday, January 25

Roberto Deveruex

Philip Gossett leads this Education Class.

More information coming soon.

Monday, February 22

La bohème

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.

Monday, March 29

Salome

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.