The Epic of Opera with William Berger VIDEO PACKAGE

     This webinar took place over eight Zoom sessions during two weeks in June. It addressed the subject of opera itself: What is it? Why is it the way it is? How did it become that way? What can be gained from engaging with it that can’t be gained elsewhere? The course followed the development of this most unusual art form. So, it was a sort of a history—but really it was an inquiry into context rather than a historical rundown. What emerged was a sense of how opera—far being merely a freakish side show to the pageant of history—is actually a sort of vast audio-visual-sensual kaleidoscope, providing a unique, profound, and essential perspective on that pageant. Each session was about an hour long and was comprised of three 20-minute components. The first component was a multi-media presentation by author, lecturer, and Metropolitan Opera commentator William Berger. (See below for individual descriptions of each session.) The next component was a chat with one (or two) major opera sta