LEARN ABOUT OPERA

AN INTRODUCTION to
BARTOK’s
BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2026
at 4 pm

This must-see landmark 20^th century double bill, directed by Quebec’s Robert Lepage and designed by Torontonian Michael Levine, has become the Canadian Opera Company’s most celebrated and signature production.

AN INTRODUCTION to
MASSENET’s
WERTHER

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2026
at 4 pm

Goethe’s semi-autobiographical epistolatory novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” created a Europe-wide sensation in 1774. WERTHER tells the story of a young man who is driven to commit suicide after falling in love with an unattainably married woman.  Hundreds of despairing young men were tragically inspired to follow his example.

Lecture 1
DEVILS, the FAUSTIAN PACT
and the ETERNAL FEMININE

MONDAY, FEB. 9, 2026
at 4 pm

Goethe’s re- telling of the legend of Faust in the 1770s, with its exploration of good, evil, love and redemption has spawned more than 30 operas – most notably by Charles Gounod, Arrigo Boito and Hector Berlioz – and

Gustav Mahler set the final pages of Goethe’s Faust in his 8th Symphony (the Symphony of 1,000) emphasizing the redeeming power of “the eternal feminine”.

Weber’s Der Freischütz and Igor Stravinski Rake’s Progress highlight similar pacts with the Devil and Giuseppe Verdi explored Joan of Arc’s controversial pact with the Devil in his Giovanna D’Arco. Finally, Anton Dvorak found fun with his Kate and the Devil.

Lecture 2
SLAVIC MYTHS and LEGENDS
RIDDLES, MYSTERIES and ENIGMAS

MONDAY, FEB. 16, 2026
at 4 pm

Churchill described Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

Russian myths were the focus of Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov’s operatic writing, including his Golden Cockerell, Legend of Tsar Saltan, Sadko, the Snow Maiden and the Invisible City of Kitezh.

Dvorak similarly explored Czech myths including his Rusalka.

The others in Russia’s “mighty five” composers were more interested in the Legendary aspects of Russia’s history, including Glinka’s A Life for the Czar and Borodin’s Prince Igor.

Lecture 3
FAIRY TALES
The USES of ENCHANTMENT

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2026
at 4 pm

Bruno Bettelheim’s 1976 book “the Uses of Enchantment” raised awareness of the power of fairy tales for both children and adults.

From the writings of Charles Perrault, to Hans Christian Andersen, to the Brothers Grimm, and on to JRR Tolkien and Stephen Sondheim – there has been a cornucopia of subject matter for opera composers.

We will sample Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Rossini’s Cenerentola, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges and Britten’s Paul Bunyan, amongst others, and consider if Bettelheim’s analyses still hold water.

Lecture 4
SUPERNATURAL
BLACK and WHITE MAGIC

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2026
at 4 pm

Opera is full of mysterious eclipses, supernatural witches, the incantations of wizards, and many forms of scary paranormal phenomena.

From Handel’s Alcina and Rinaldo to Mozart’s Don Giovanni, to Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, to Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel – we can be intrigued and maybe even scared by links beyond our normal experience.

There are zombies in Wagner’s the Flying Dutchman, ghosts (phantoms of the opera?) in Tchaikovsky’s the Queen of Spades, Britten’s the Turn of the Screw, Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, Verdi’s Macbeth … and many, many others.