LEARN ABOUT OPERA
Online Courses & In-Person Seminars with Iain Scott
2-Day In-Person Seminar
COMPOSING OPERA AND
THE ART OF THE ENSEMBLE
at
The Arts & Letters Club
Saturday, January 17
& Sunday, January 18, 2026
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
including 2 Lunches
This is our 38th “Weekend Seminar”
since 2004!
This year we will be at
the Arts and Letters Club.
Current Online Classes
Mondays at 4 pm
MYTHS AND LEGENDS IN OPERA
(a 6-part Series)
Monday, Sept. 20 – Monday, Dec. 1, 2025
through CLASSI LEARNING
ONLINE CLASSES
with Classi Learning this Fall
MYTHS and LEGENDS in OPERA – 6 lectures
Lecture 1
GREEK MYTHS
in OPERA
MONDAY 20th OCT. 2025
at 4 pm
Opera was invented in Florence around 1600 as a Renaissance project to recreate ancient Greek drama – the poetry of which, scholars had concluded, especially in the choral episodes, had probably been chanted or sung. Opera was to be a “dramma per musica”.
Lecture 2
THE TROJAN WAR
in OPERA
MONDAY 27th OCT. 2025
at 4 pm
The foundations of all western literature are the Greek epic poems of HOMER (700 BCE) and the Roman latin poems of VERGIL (19 BCE) and OVID (8 CE). Until recently, the definition of being “educated” was to have a deep knowledge of these texts, although today this is rare.
Lecture 3
HEROES and QUESTS
in OPERA
MONDAY 10th NOV. 2025
at 4 pm
Studies of the role of HEROES and HEROINES are dominated by the insights of JOSEPH CAMPBELL (the Hero with a Thousand Faces) and CARL JUNG (the Hero’s Journey).
Lecture 4
OPERAS from the
OLD TESTAMENT
MONDAY 17th NOV. 2025
at 4 pm
The land between the two rivers of the Tigris and the Euphrates (or, in Greek, MESOPOTAMIA) was the site of some of civilization’s first urban settlements and the earliest known development of agriculture.
Lecture 5
KNIGHTS in
SHINING ARMOUR
MONDAY 24th NOV. 2025
at 4 pm
A wandering KNIGHT ERRANT, by definition, errs.
He appears in many different forms over the centuries.
Baroque operas often focused on the deeds of CHARLEMAGNE’s PALADINS, most famously ROLAND (or ORLANDO) with settings by Handel, Haydn and Vivaldi.
Lecture 6
NORSE GODS
in OPERA
MONDAY 1st DEC. 2025
at 4 pm
Interest in the pantheon of Scandinavian and Icelandic gods has recently been given new currency with Neil Gaiman’s popular book on NORSE MYTHOLOGY (2017) and a series of popular TV shows and video games featuring the VIKINGS.
Would you like Iain
to give an Opera Lecture
for your group or event ?
If you are a member of a Club, a Condo,
or a “Third Age Learning” organization,
ask Iain to prepare a special talk for your group.
Testimonials
“What I like most about Iain’s courses is his curation of helpful video examples to illustrate his lectures.”
N.T. L. (Toronto)
“Iain has a wonderful grasp of history so we learn about the times as well as the operas.”
R.E.C. (London)
“Every time Iain teaches he always inspires me to want to learn more.
I enjoy his broad experience and his deep expertise... He is a born teacher.“
B.J. (Toronto ON)