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.

2025 Opera InSight: Love, Loss, Revenge and Redemption

The Opera InSight video series explores the psychological foundations of the productions in Santa Fe Opera’s 2025 Festival Season. We track opera as a mode of expression for intense human emotions, such as the longing for love or the desire for revenge. Through stories and characters, both comedic and tragic, opera acts as a reflection of our human experience, and Opera InSight holds up the mirror.

Watch each segment for FREE on the Santa Fe Opera YouTube Channel.

Segment 1: La bohème
Examines the bro-mance and romance of Puccini’s classic love story, La bohème. Delve into the psychology of love and loss, as well as the meaning of the director’s choice to set the production during the period between the world wars.

Segment 2: The Marriage of Figaro 
Embraces the twists and turns of Mozart’s most famous romcom, The Marriage of Figaro. This episode explores the narrative force of the “love triangle” and discusses the opera’s serious lessons about life and love on its way to its inevitable happy ending.

Segment 3: Rigoletto
Explores the psychology of revenge that permeates the plot of Verdi’s Rigoletto. The opera asks us to consider the psychology of free will and choice over impulsive action, as well as the powerful influence that circumstances impose on us.

Segment 4: The Turn of the Screw 
Introduces a psychological thriller: Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. The eerie music of the score captivates as we analyze the narrative ambiguity that can be read as either a ghost story or a tragic tale of an unreliable narrator’s descent into madness, depending on how you look at it.

Segment 5: Die Walküre 
Considers Wagner’s Die Walküre. Known for its music, which is as majestic as the mythical and archetypal story it tells, the opera resonates with genuinely human dilemmas about love, conflicts between head and heart, and the choices that shape the paths our lives take.

Dr. Don Fineberg Bio

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