Introduction to Opera + Mozart, Marriage of F...

The story of Alexander von Zemlinsky's The Mermaid begins with a passionate love affair and ends in heartbreak of the most unabashedly big-R Romantic kind. In 1900, the young, fabulously talented, and famously beautiful Alma Schindler came to Zemlinsky's home to study composition ...  Show more

Many aspects of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's life seem relatively normal when it comes to composers of the Baroque era. He was prolific, died young, and his music became very famous only after his death. However, all three of these facts are complicated by the unique circumstanc ...  Show more

Today’s episode is drawn from a Talking about Opera excerpt, featuring Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" with lecturer Bridget Paolucci. At the time this recording was made, Bridget was a frequent lecturer at the Met Opera Guild, New York City Opera, and regularly appeared on the Met ...  Show more

Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera Fidelio had a long and complicated compositional history. In fact, Beethoven went through three different versions of the opera during his lifetime. No other composition gave him such frustration. So much so that he never attempted to write an op ...  Show more

Escuchamos la ópera de uno de los compositores más grandes de todos los tiempos: Puccini. Con esta pieza pasó de un día para otro a convertirse en el sucesor de Verdi. Massenet ya había puesto música a esta historia pero Puccini la llevó a la italiana. Un relato que trata los ato ...  Show more

In a pre-performance lecture from our archives, stage director Jay Lesenger explores "Le nozze di Figaro," and the connections between Pierre Beaumarchais (who wrote the play on which the opera is based), Lorenzo Da Ponte (who wrote the libretto for the opera), and Mozart (who br ...  Show more