Sounds of Learning

Welcome Students and Teachers to Opera Online! Only two more episodes of our summer webisodes. This week we will look at three of the most popular magical operas, Mozart 's The Magic Flute , Gaetano Donizetti 's Elixir of Love , and Engelbert Humperdinck 's Hansel and Gretel . Video Clips of the Week! Mozart's magical comedy The Magic Flute tells the story of Tamino, a handsome prince who must face several trials to win the hand and heart of his princess. In the first video clip we are introduced to Papageno, a bird catcher who helps Tamino on his trecherous journey. Gaetano Donizetti's Elixir of Love follows Nemorino, a simple peasant who is convinced that a love potion will win him the heart of the landowner's beautiful daughter, Adina. The second video clip is the most famous tenor aria from the opera, "Una furtiva lagrima". Played by Rolando Villazon , Nemorino sings about spying a "furtive tear" from Adina, which is proof that...

Welcome Students and Teachers to Opera Online!! Continuing with our top 10 most popular operas, this week we will take a look at Giacomo Puccini's top two operas, Tosca and La Boheme . Video Clips of the Week!! While he was still alive and composing, Puccini was known for creating some of the most beautiful melodies in opera. It's no wonder that two of his operas still make the top 10 list today! Our first video clip is from Puccini's beautifully tragic opera Tosca . The opera follows a beautiful opera singer, Floria Tosca, who is forced by a corrupt chief of police to chose between her boyfriend's life or her honor. If you saw the Opera Company of Philadelphia production of Tosca this spring, you may recognize the popular aria in this video clip. The clip features tenor Placido Domingo as Cavaradossi, Tosca's love. The aria, "E lucevan Le stelle" (The stars shone brightly) takes place moments before Cavaradossi is scheduled to be executed. He...

Welcome Students and Teachers to Opera Online! Continuing with our summer webisode The ABC's of Opera over the next few weeks we will be taking a look at the Top 10 Most performed operas in the United States. Kicking off the list are two of the most popular comedic operas: The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini and The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Video Clips of the Week! Although The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro were written by two different composers in two very different time periods, the stories are actually taken from a trilogy of plays with mostly the same characters (It's like two different directors making movies out of the books Twilight and Eclipse, and having the Eclipse movie released first). The first part of the story is The Barber of Seville . The Barber of Seville The story of The Barber of Seville follows a crafty barber, Figaro, and his former master Count Almaviva. Looking to find a woman who will fall in love with...