![]() ![]() You can find more music content from Robert Greenberg on Patreon. He has been profiled in various major publications, including The Wall Street Journal Inc. His many other honors include three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and a Koussevitzky commission from the Library of Congress. Professor Greenberg is a Steinway Artist. For The Great Courses, he has recorded more than 500 lectures on a range of composers and classical music genres. He has served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley California State University, Hayward and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, and the Chicago Symphony. He has seen his compositions-which include more than 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles-performed all over the world, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands. in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. A graduate of Princeton University, Professor Greenberg holds a Ph.D. Robert Greenberg is Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances. Most opera is not in English and it is helpful to follow along with the English translation of the words being sung in the opera excerpts.ĭr. The video version definitely enhances the learning experience. I initially used the audio (cassette tape) version but I retook it using the video version. This makes it one of the better course guides offered by TGC. The appendix includes a timeline, a glossary, biographical notes for the major composers addressed in the course, and a bibliography. The course guide includes the libretti of the opera excerpts used. For instance, Lectures 5-8 get one chapter in the course guide. Often several lectures are merged into one section in the course guide. It is written in paragraph form rather than the outline or bullet form used later. This appears to be an early experiment with course guides. In my opinion, he is the standard by which all other TGC lecturers are measured. He is knowledgeable, humorous, and easy to follow. Greenberg is among the elite, among the very best at TGC. It is so old that the lectures are 45 minutes long instead of the later standard of 30 minutes each.ĭr. Greenberg holds his notes rather than reading from a teleprompter. This appears to be one of the earliest courses offered by TGC. He illustrates this by analyzing Puccini’s Tosca. He concludes with a brief foray into the twentieth century with an examination of dramatic truth and expressive realism.He illustrates this by analyzing Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. He dallies with Russian opera and the differences imposed by the differences of the Slavic languages and culture relative to the languages and culture of Western Europe.He illustrates this by analyzing Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. German opera came to consider opera a “music drama,” which totally integrated music and drama. He then jumps to German opera, which developed independently from the popular German singspiel.He illustrates the characteristics of French opera by analyzing Bizet’s Carmen. He then jumps from Italian opera to French opera, which developed independently and supported the aristocracy and emphasized dance.He illustrates this by analyzing Verdi’s Otello. He shows that Verdi advanced opera by rebalancing and integrating the music with the drama.He illustrates this by analyzing Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. He shows that the music overshadowed the drama as Italian opera developed the bel canto style, which emphasized the beauty of the singing.He illustrates opera buffa by analyzing Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. He shows that as opera seria came to be considered overblown and improbable, Italian opera developed opera buffa, a sort of comic opera.He illustrates this style by analyzing Mozart’s Idomeneo He shows how this developed into a style – opera seria, usually about a mythic figure.He shows that the singing is used to enhance the existing stage dramas. He explains the invention of opera in Italy by analyzing Orfeo by Monteverdi.He shows that, by the Renaissance, drama was enhanced by music between acts and then music *during* the drama. He starts by discussing the history of vocal music.He takes the approach of unfolding the historical development of opera and thus ultimately its modern characteristics. Greenburg tackles the inscrutable topic of opera bit-by-bit. Robert Greenberg, one of the best teachers in the TGC stable. A Milestone Course This is one of the flagship courses at The Great Courses (TGC) and it is taught by Dr. ![]()
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