The Operas of Mozart

Mozart's operas vie with each other to be among the greatest achievements of artistic striving. This course examines his operas and the genesis of his genius. In this series we are summoned to understand more fully the height of Mozart's operatic achievement by analyzing two masterpieces closely. The course also invites us to fathom the enigma of Mozart's meteoric genius by studying his career and development. Professor Greenberg is not an idolator-he reminds us that Mozart was a man, a human, trying to make a name and a living. Professor Greenberg shows that Mozart was an "irreverent revolutionary" who did not worship the past. Accordingly, says Professor Greenberg, "this course is somewhat different than you might expect. It brings Mozart's art refreshingly down to earth. It does not trivialize opera, nor does it put it on a pedestal." The structure of the course is somewhat unusual. The 24 lectures are in 3 parts of 8 lectures each. The first and third parts concentrate your attention on two works of surpassing beauty and accomplishment, Cosi fan tutte and The Magic Flute. The middle 8 lectures of the course-a biographical flashback, if you will-study Mozart's early life and development from the first opera he wrote (when he was 11 years old) to Don Giovanni, completed when he was 31.… (more)