Two sessions of the informal series “Getting to Know Opera” have now been completed! The first was a couple of weeks ago covering Rossini’s comic opera La Cenerentola. And last night, I gave a session on Puccini’s tear-jerker La Bohème. These talks both were offered as preludes to productions being streamed by the Metropolitan Opera.
La Bohème is scheduled for a free broadcast on Friday night, May 8, and will be available for viewing for 23 hours thereafter. The Met’s ongoing schedule for streaming is here (scroll down to May 8 for La Bohème).
Judging by the number of people who registered for these webinars, they seem to have generated certain enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for opera is very good thing, so I’m hoping to expand the series and build a collection of video talks covering significant, interesting operas across various styles and time periods.
Recordings for both webinars are currently available. Just follow the links.
And I hope you will watch for new webinars (as yet unscheduled) and let me know if there’s an opera that you particularly like to see me cover.
Dear Professor Carol.
My sister and I LOVE opera and are students of your Discovering Music course. We saw your Webinar on Rossini’s La Cenerentola which was wonderful. We have some operas we’d love to hear your insight. Could you please consider doing
-Massenet’s Cendrillon, (as a contrast to Rossini’s La Cenerentola?)
-Donizetti’s Tudor Queen Trilogy (which are rarely performed but quite wonderful)
-Verdi’s Rigoletto
Thank you very much for considering our opinions and we love your lectures.
Sincerely,
Vivien and Odette Iannetta.
Dear Professor Carol,
It was so exciting to receive your email. We understand the problem of access to free opera productions when doing a class. We wanted to share with you a few links we use, in case it would help.
OperaVision offers a number of stable opera streams from smaller European houses with English subtitles, including Il Trovatore, Eugene Onegin, and more. It is free at all times, not just during the pandemic. https://operavision.eu/en/library/%C3%93peras
The Royal Opera House is streaming operas with English subtitles on YouTube. They are available for free for a month. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23OurHouseToYourHouse The latest stream is La Traviata (which we’d love to hear you talk about.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wiGeh2c8LI
Vienna State Opera also has free streams with English subtitles available for 72 hours. They are scheduled through the end of May. https://www.staatsoperlive.com/live
Anyone who is in Spain or is willing to use a Spanish proxy (like the yer which has both a great La Traviata and Madama Butterfly. Their full catalogue is being offered for free with English subtitles for as long as Spain is under lockdown. During “normal” times you can rent individual videos. https://www.myoperaplayer.com/
We hope that the Met will stream Natalie Dessay and Joseph Calleja’s Lucia Di Lammermoor. It is our most favorite Lucia of all time. Met Opera On Demand also has the option of renting individual operas for $4.99. Maybe people would prefer that to paying for a whole subscription. https://www.metopera.org/season/on-demand/opera/?upc=811357019399
Finally, OperaWire compiled a very large list of free streams available directly from opera houses, but it is slightly overwhelming.
https://operawire.com/a-comprehensive-list-of-all-opera-companies-offering-free-streaming-services-right-now/
Thank you so much for doing this and letting us provide our suggestions. We are so grateful to have someone like you talk about opera. We wait all week for your emails to find out which one is next.
Sincerely,
Vivien and Odette Iannetta