OPERA TALK: SHAKESPEARE AND OPERA SERIES
Famous literary figure, William Shakespeare’s timeless works always make an excellent opera. Tanisha delves into how Shakespeare's famous lines evolved into opera masterpieces. This series is offered in two parts.
PART ONE:
William Shakespeare’s timeless works always make an excellent opera. Join Tanisha as she discusses how opera breathes life into Shakespeare’s works through famous operas like Romeo et Juliette, Otello and Macbeth.
Part one includes these operas:
ROMEO ET JULIETTE BY CHARLES GOUNOD
OTELLO BY GIUSEPPE VERDI
MACBETH BY GIUSEPPE VERDI
PART TWO:
Famous literary figure, William Shakespeare’s timeless works always make an excellent opera. Join Tanisha as she discusses how opera breathes like into Shakespeare's works through famous operas including Falstaff, Midsummer Night's Dream and I Capuletti e i Montecchi.
Part two includes these operas:
FALSTAFF BY GIUSEPPE VERDI
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM BY BENJAMIN BRITTEN
I CAPULETTI E I MONTECCHI BY VINCENZO BELLINI
Opera Composers who were inspired by Shakespeare’s plays
The following composers took Shakespeare plays and expanded them with the power of music. -Tanisha
British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), used Shakespeare's play, Midsummer Night's Dream as the baseline of his opera that premiered in 1960.
Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) used an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in his 1830 opera, I Capuletti e i Montecchi.
Like Bellini, French composer, Charles Gounod (1818-1893) also used Romeo and Juliet as the subject of his opera that premiered in 1867.
Prolific Italian composer, Giuseppi Verdi (1813-1901) used three Shakespeare plays in his three of his operas throughout his career. The operas were Macbeth (1847), Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).
1. Talk only with audio-visual presentation
2. Talk with an aria performed by the speaker
3. Virtual Talk
TANISHA’S PICKS: DVD’S, SOUND RECORDINGS & MORE
This opera talk features some of Tanisha’s favorite opera DVD's and recordings. Click the link to purchase some of them for your own collection.
DVD
Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi
Metropolitan Opera
DVD
Tenor Titans
(For Otello sung by James McCracken)
DVD
Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi
Vienna Philharmonic
DVD
Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten
Royal Opera House
DVD
I Capuletti e i Montecchi
Zurich Opera House