Continuing Education for Opera Lovers
Online Learning by The Metropolitan Opera Guild allows you to experience courses created by the Lectures and Community Engagement Department from anywhere!
FAQ
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What kinds of materials does an online course with The Metropolitan Opera Guild give me access to?
Our online course materials are comprised of lecture videos, readings, response questions, and handouts. All course materials are curated by the instructor.
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Do I need to be able to read music to understand the course material?
No music reading skills are necessary! Our lesson readings often include score examples and illustrations within the flow of reading, however, readings have been carefully curated such that you do not need to read music in order to understand the main point of the text. Our courses are designed to be accessible for all levels of music reading knowledge.
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How long will I have access to the online material?
All courses composed of pre-recorded lectures are available for 60 days after the purchase date. All webinars occur live at the stated time, and the a recording of the live webinar will be available for 72 hours. Please see each individual page to learn more.
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What kind of technology do I need to take the course?
You can access course material on a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone. As long as you have internet access, you can access the course website. Select readings are available to download so that you read them while offline as well.
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Can I use my Met Opera or my Met Guild log in credentials for this site?
This website, containing the Metropolitan Opera Guild's Online Learning content, is hosted through Thinkific. Thinkific is a separate website than the Met Opera website, or the Met Guild website. As such, you will be asked to create a new account when you make your first purchase, and set up that account using an email and password. This new account is not connected to any preexisting accounts on the other websites.
Currently Available Courses
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$40.00Score Reading: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
This class will be presented live as a webinar and will delve into the musical highlights of Lucia di Lammermoor, giving beginner and intermediate readers the tools to explore the intricate workings of a score.
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$40.00Score Reading: Verdi's Rigoletto
This class will be presented live as a webinar and will delve into the musical highlights of Rigoletto, giving beginner and intermediate readers the tools to explore the intricate workings of a score and experience a new way of listening to opera.
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$40.00Score Reading: The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess
This class will be presented live as a webinar and will delve into the musical highlights of Porgy and Bess, giving beginner and intermediate readers the tools to explore the workings of a score and experience a new way of listening to opera.
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$100.00Opera Boot Camp: Introduction to Operatic Staging
In this series lecturer Matthew Timmermans will not only explore the history of operatic staging, the dramaturgy, sets, costumes and bodies that bring opera visually to life, but also the direct impact that has on the sonic, making them inseparable.
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$130.00Opera 101 Bundle: Opera History and Voice Types
This bundle combines our two popular Opera 101 courses, Opera History and Voice Types. These two courses, presented by Dr. Naomi Barrettara, are designed to be friendly for both newcomers and veteran operagoers.
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$100.00La Divina and the Callas Effect
Maria Callas—referred to as La Divina by her devoted worshipers—is widely considered opera’s greatest diva. She epitomizes the golden standard against which today’s singers are still compared sixty-four years after her Met debut.
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$75.00Verdi Voices
In this four part course, lecturer Jane Marsh will discuss Verdi's use of the voice and its development across his compositional periods.
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$75.00Opera 101: Voice Types
There is something for everybody in opera, but it can be daunting to figure out where to start. In this series, lecturer Dr. Naomi Barrettara dives into the basics with an introduction to opera history, musical terms, and more.
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$100.00Opera Boot Camp: Introduction to Operatic Singing
Designed by Dr. Naomi Barrettara, this course explores the different components of what singers go through to train, develop, and care for their voices, giving audiences an inside look at the nuts and bolts of the trade.
Instructors
Dr. Naomi Barrettara
Lecturer
Dr. Naomi Barrettara is a program development consultant and lecturer at The Metropolitan Opera Guild involved with several of the Guild’s community programs, including Opera Boot Camp, Score Reading, Continuing Education classes and Online Learning courses. She is also a co-host on The Metropolitan Opera Guild Podcast, and in her work producing the podcast between fall 2015 and summer 2020, the podcast reached over 1.25 million listeners. In addition to her work at the Guild, Naomi is a co-founder and co-host of the podcast Opera After Dark, and works on various freelance digital media projects. Naomi holds a PhD in Musicology from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, with an additional certificate in interactive technology and pedagogy. Her main research areas include opera studies, public musicology, and classical music in the digital age.
Victoria Bond
Composer, Conductor, and Lecturer
Victoria Bond leads a dual career as composer and conductor receiving praises from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ms. Bond has been commissioned by ensembles including American Ballet Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Houston Symphony, and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and her compositions have also been performed by the Dallas Symphony, New York City Opera, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony, among others. Her opera “Clara” about Clara Schumann will premiered under the auspices of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in April 2019. The first woman awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School, she regularly appears as a guest conductor throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and China. Ms. Bond has served as music director of the New Amsterdam and Roanoke Symphony Orchestras; artistic director of Opera Roanoke, Harrisburg Opera, and Bel Canto Opera; music adviser of the Wuhan Symphony in China, assistant conductor of New York City Opera and the Pittsburgh Symphony. She is currently principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago.
Dr. Naomi Perley
Lecturer
Dr. Naomi Perley holds a PhD in Musicology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research focuses on the Wagnerian legacy in fin-de-siècle France, and particularly on the impact it had on French chamber music during this period. She has presented her research at the annual meetings of the American Musicological Society and at international conferences. Naomi sings professionally with Polyhymnia, a choir devoted to singing Renaissance sacred music. She works full-time at Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) as Subscriptions Manager and Product Development Coordinator for the Index to Printed Music.