Great Courses:  How To Listen To And Understand Opera:  Part 1, taught by Professor Robert Greenberg

If you are a fan of classical music and the Great Courses series, and I must admit to being fans of both, then it is likely you have heard Robert Greenberg’s impassioned instruction about music and composers, and that is something to be found here.  In stark contrast to most of the other courses by the instructor that I have listened to so far, I am not very knowledgeable about opera.  At best, I am someone who could be considered a casual fan of opera, someone who is willing to watch an opera if the tickets are free or cheap enough, and someone who has at least a basic appreciation for what can be done by very good composers and librettists in opera, but not someone who has seen a lot of operas or knows more than the basic stories of many of the most famous operas that exist.  In general, though, as someone who is fond of musical theater in various forms, this is something that I found a great deal to enjoy, and the first part of this course indicates that the instructor is quite interested in discussing opera in depth and to inspire a high degree of understanding and approval of opera as a form.

The eight lectures in this particular part of the course (which is the first of four for the course overall) are divided into three segments.  The first two lectures, each of them 45 minutes apiece, introduce the subject of opera and the relationship between words and music for the listener.  While the instructor does not assume that the person listening to the course is proficient in opera, it certainly helps to be interested in and knowledgeable about words and music in general.  After that comes a couple of lectures that give a brief history of vocal expression in Western music, starting with ancient Greek music and going through the Middle Ages with plain and less plain chant through madrigals and the birth of opera.  The last four lectures provide a discussion of the origins of opera as well as a detailed look, including quite a few excerpts, of the first operatic masterpiece in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, which provides the listener with a good look at the way that opera could be done well without arias at the beginning of its history by a master of the craft.

What is it that makes good opera compelling?  To be sure, the repertoire is full of mediocre to bad opera, and throughout a long stretch of history there were so many operas being made that very few of them have been remembered, but when one watches or listens to good opera, there is a strong sense of emotional resonance, and Orfeo gives us a good understanding of why this must be the case.  Orfeo is a powerful musician, but one whose arrogance at having obtained the love of a nymph is first rocked by her death due to a snakebite and he is then further rocked by his own vanity and insecurity after having won over the lord of the underworld with a conditional promise to bring her back into life.  And yet although Orfeo is someone we can relate to, he does not examine himself to see his own fault for what has happened to him, nor does he come to that tragic realization of his own flaws that have endangered his happiness.  At its best, opera is a deeply moving art that is either richly comic or deeply tragic and reminding us of the truths of our inner nature, expressed artfully in the combination of music and words.