The Operas of Mozart

Mozart's operas vie with each other to be considered among the greatest achievements of human artistic striving. In these 24 lectures by Professor Greenberg, you’ll understand more fully the height of Mozart's operatic achievement by analyzing two masterpieces closely. These lectures also invite you to fathom the enigma of Mozart's meteoric genius by studying his career and development. The lectures are structured in three parts of eight lectures each. The first and third parts concentrate your attention on two works of surpassing beauty and accomplishment, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute. The middle eight lectures of the course study Mozart's early life and development from the first opera he wrote (when he was 11 years old) to Don Giovanni, completed when he was 31. Whatever lecture you’re enjoying, you’ll discover how Mozart used music to illustrate character, to reveal emotion, to propel action, and to weave a world on stage as fully realized and fascinatingly imagined as anything in the dramatic repertoire. Works you'll hear in the lectures are excerpted from: Apollo et Hyacinthus, K. 38; Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50 [K. 46b]; La finta semplice, K. 51 [K 46a]; Lucio Silla, K. 135; La finta giardiniera, K. 196; Il rè pastore, K. 208; Idomeneo, rè di Creta, K. 366; The Abduction from the Harem, K. 384; The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492; Don Giovanni, K. 527; Così fan tutte, K. 588; and The Magic Flute, K. 620.