Winter 2024 Opera Appreciation Course - Your Choices!

Ten Tuesday Afternoons
January 9 - March 12, 2024

Introduction

The winter 2024 opera appreciation course will focus on operas and singers that were selected by participants in previous classes. Some of the operas are traditional, and others are more contemporary. The list of singers includes both some who sang in the past and others who are currently performing. The course is suitable for both experienced opera lovers and for beginners.

All classes will be by Zoom. They will be recorded so that participants who cannot attend can listen at their convenience. If the day and time of the course doesn't work for you, you are welcome to sign up. As always, comprehensive information about each opera and singer that we study, links to the music that we hear, recommended reading, and recommended listening will be available on the website. Other opera appreciation courses do not offer these benefits.

Instructor Margie Satinsky

Margie Satinsky is a long-time opera lover who has attended more than 200 performances in the United States and Europe. She has taught opera appreciation classes since 2012, both independently and through OLLI at Duke. Her classes have focused on Highlights of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD, Russian opera, a Tribute to Black Opera Singers, In a Different Voice (different voice types), and other special topics. Margie is a founder and President of the Triangle Wagner Society.

Optional Sunday Afternoons Triangle Wagner Society (TWS) Programs

Course participants will have the opportunity to attend multiple Triangle Wagner Society (TWS) programs. Some of these programs are live at The Forest at Duke, and others are by Zoom. All programs are recorded, and a link to the recording will be available within 24 hours of the event. The programs are free to those who have paid TWS membership dues for 2024. The guest fee is $15/person.

• January 7, 2024, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Zoom program with Barry Millington on "Edward Burne-Jones, George Eliot, and Richard Wagner: A Collision of Like-Minded Souls"
• January 28, 2024, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Live program with Francesca Zambello on "Wagner's Ring Cycle and Rossini's Barber of Seville [being performed at NC Opera]"
• February 11, 2024, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Kirsten Paige: Zoom program with Kirsten Paige on "Richard Wagner's Political Ecology"
• March 10, 2024: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Zoom program with Desirée Mays and Severall Friends (early music ensemble) on "The Lover's Bane, a medieval telling of the story of Tristan and Isolde.
• April 14, 2024: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Live program with Jeffrey Buller on "Tristan und Isolde: The Potion That Is Poison or the Brew That Is True?"
• May 19, 2024: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Live program with Nicholas Vazsonyi: "Wagner was not a Post-Structuralist: A Response to Paula and Edward Bortnichak." Honorarium in 2022 was $450.
• Summer 2024: Pre-recorded program by Saul Lilienstein: "Wagner and God."