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.

Deepen your experience and understanding of opera with Opera Basics — a series of five free, informative talks that will introduce you to the building blocks of opera while previewing the five productions of the Santa Fe Opera’s 2026 Season: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Handel’s Rodelinda, and the American premiere of Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe.

• Learn about the stories, the characters, the music, and the text
• Gain insight into how to listen to the singers and the orchestra
• Learn about the composers, the librettists, and the genesis of the operas
• Get tips on how to understand the sets, props, costumes, and the directors’ concepts.

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Opera InSight offers an illuminating look at each season’s productions, with special focus on directors’ choices and musical interpretation. By highlighting the psychological themes of the narrative and focusing on this season’s productions, we reveal how opera makes a compelling mirror of the human condition — its foibles and triumphs, loves and vendettas, dilemmas and humor. For the first time, Opera InSight includes live performances. This season includes Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, two timeless tragedies of love found and lost; Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with its lush music and trials of the heart; Handel’s 1725 Rodelinda, a melodrama of passion and intrigue that rivals modern film noir; and the American premiere of Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe, a moving portrayal of a transgender protagonist’s transition.

Whether you are new to opera or a longtime patron seeking fresh insight, Opera InSight provides an engaging welcome and a deeper appreciation of these works. Which operas will inspire you this season? Opera InSight can help launch your journey.

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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. Seating is limited. No reservation needed. Due to popularity, the first talk is recommended for better availability. Prelude Talks are not offered on July 3, August 16 and 23.

Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute & Eugene Onegin presented by Oliver Prezant
Rodelina presented by Kevin Vigneau
Lili Elbe presented by Alexis Corbin

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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