Opera Lectures - 2018

It's that time of year when we celebrate operatic music performed at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.  Our lectures are led by the Opera Lovers Lecture Corps.  Lectures are in the Multipurpose Room on Thursdays from 7-8:30 pm.

September 20 - La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini
Puccini's tale introduces us to young artists struggling to make ends meet in Paris's Latin Quarter.  Musetta drives her painter beau Marcello crazy with jealousy.  Frail Mimi and her poet Rodolf finally find love, but she dies tragically in the end.

October 4 - Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Shipwrecked, he gets safely to shore only after promising Neptune to sacrifice the first person he sees - but it's his son, Idamante.  As Idomeneo agonizes over the catastrophe facing him, Idamante woos one princess, the lovely Ilia, and is madly pursued by another, the jealous Elettra.

October 18 - Siegfried by Richard Wagner

The hero of the first part of the Nibelungenlied.  A prince of the Netherlands, Siegfried obtains a hoard of treasure by killing the dragon Fafner.  He marries Kriemhild, and helps Gunther to win Brunhilde before being killed by Hagen.




November 1 - Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi

The troubadour Manrico and Count di Luna are bitter enemies who are both in love with Leonora: however, they do not know that they are brothers.  The story includes babies switched at birth, kidnapping, mistaken identity, poisoning, civil strife, witches burned at the stake, and a noblewoman who offers herself to a man she hates, to save the man she loves.

November 15 - Cendrillon by Jules Massenet
The story broadly follows the familiar version from pantomime.  The only significant change is a vision scene under the magic of the Fairy Godmother in which Cinderella runs away after the ball and meets Prince Charming in a magic forest.