How to Listen to and Understand Opera
Discover the great beauty and high artistic achievement of opera with this brilliant course by acclaimed musicologist Robert Greenberg.
Overview
Course No. 740
This 32-lecture journey through 400 years of operatic history will teach you to:
- Decode opera’s language – understand how music amplifies drama
- Recognize key styles – from Baroque to Verismo
- Appreciate masterworks – Mozart, Verdi, Wagner & Puccini
- Grasp cultural influences – how language and society shaped opera
Course Highlights:
✓ 400 years of operatic evolution in 32 engaging lectures
✓ In-depth analysis of 12 landmark operas
✓ Audio examples from legendary performances
✓ No prior musical knowledge required
Video Lectures
Section 1: Opera’s Foundations
01-02: Introduction to Opera (47 min / 45 min)
How music elevates drama beyond words
03-04: Vocal Music History (44 min / 47 min)
From ancient Greece to Renaissance polyphony
Section 2: Birth of Opera
05-08: Monteverdi’s Orfeo (46-47 min)
The first true opera (1607) and Florentine Camerata
Section 3: Classical Opera
09-12: Mozart’s Idomeneo (45-46 min)
Opera seria and Gluck’s reforms
13-16: The Marriage of Figaro (44-47 min)
Mozart’s comic masterpiece and Enlightenment ideals
Section 4: Bel Canto & Verdi
17-18: Rossini’s Barber (46 min / 48 min)
Bel canto style and Italian vocal virtuosity
19-22: Verdi’s Otello (45-46 min)
Psychological depth in Italian opera seria
Section 5: National Styles
23-24: French Opera (45-46 min)
Lully to Bizet – distinct Gallic traditions
25: German Opera Matures (48 min)
From Mozart’s Magic Flute to Weber
26-28: Wagner & Strauss (45-46 min)
Tristan und Isolde’s chromaticism and Salome’s scandal
29-30: Russian Opera (46 min / 42 min)
Glinka to Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov
Section 6: Verismo
31-32: Puccini’s Tosca (46 min each)
The pinnacle of realistic, emotional opera

