Learning

We offer a variety of learning opportunities for adults throughout the year. These include introductory spotlights, psychological insights and in-depth seminars during our season.

Opera Basics in Santa Fe and Placitas! Join conductor and educator Oliver Prezant for a series of FREE, fun, informative talks on opera. Each talk will introduce you to opera basics while previewing one of the five operas of the Santa Fe Opera’s 2025 Season. Best of all, you’ll have a chance to go into each performance with the confidence to relax, enjoy, and get the most out of your experience in the opera house.

Learn More About Opera Basics

Join our invited speakers for a Symposium to hear about the thought-provoking and controversial genius, Richard Wagner. Whether you are new to Wagner or an experienced aficionado, this day-long event will be both enlightening and entertaining.

Learn More About Symposium

A road map for your evening’s performance, these talks are complimentary to ticket holders and are held in Stieren Orchestra Hall twice before most performances. The first talk is given two hours before the performance, and the second is one hour before.

Prelude Talks are not offered on June 27 or before the Apprentice Scenes on August 10 and 17, 2025.

Oliver Prezant Bio

Opera Insight 2024: The Recipe for Love
An enjoyable introduction to the psychology behind the Santa Fe Opera’s Festival Season.

Love inspires us. The pursuit of it complicates our lives. It leads to the greatest feelings of triumph as well as the depths of tragic despair.  The 2024 Season explores the many aspects of love that enrich our lives. La traviata demonstrates the degree of sacrifice sometimes demanded by true love, while Don Giovanni shows us a darker, exploitative side of sexual addiction. The Righteous incorporates the spiritual side of love as it encounters real-world longings for personal and political power. Der Rosenkavalier reminds us that a great love story presents a perfect backdrop for unforgettable operatic comedy. And finally, The Elixir of Love embraces the simple notion, given a chance, in the end true love will triumph. By drawing from each of these productions, and adopting a psychological perspective, Opera Insight 2024 develops its own recipe for love, to enhance our enjoyment of these operas.

Segment 1: La traviata
The introduction to the season is followed by Verdi’s La traviata. This opera contributes to our understanding of; love as rooted in a social context, rife with self-knowledge and sacrifice.

Segment 2: Don Giovanni
Mozart’s masterpiece, Don Giovanni, introduces us to a ‘player’s’ version of love, and the increasingly difficult escape from consequences when our title character adds murder to his misdeeds and his conscience plays its part in his downfall.

Segment 3: The Righteous
The Righteous, a world premiere opera by Gregory Spears and Tracy K Smith, provides a springboard for love awash in the worlds of organized religion and power politics. Beyond love as a reflection of your personal history and current life, the opera explores love as your spiritual relationship with something greater than yourself.

Segment 4: Der Rosenkavalier
Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier reminds us that even a comedic gem contains many serious truths about love, contrasting salacious desire with passionate romance, and the importance of embracing true love when it is yours to hold.

Segment 5: The Elixir of Love
Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love demonstrates once again that no matter how convoluted the path, in operatic Love, we can always find a little magic on the way to a happy ending.

Dr. Don Fineberg Bio