FRYEBURG – The 12th season of Joe De Vito’s Opera Lecture Series is underway at Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center at Fryeburg Academy, and will continue through May.
The lectures are free and open to the public, with no registration required. They are monthly until February, when there is no lecture, then are twice a month until June 1.
The talks are geared to music lovers and opera aficionados, as well as those who are new to opera, and provide insights on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts presented at the academy’s performing arts center the following Saturday.
De Vito guides attendees through each production and includes an analysis of the plot and musical composition, with detailed excerpts of the music presented via video recordings, along with some humorous commentary. Ancillary research, via handouts, is available to all attendees free of charge.
Lectures are at 3 p.m. the Thursday before the broadcast and last about two hours.
The schedule is:
Oct. 20 – Medea, Luigi Cherubini
Nov. 3 – La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi
Dec. 8 – The Hours, Kevin Puts
Jan. 12 – Fedora, Umberto Giordano
March 16 – Lohengrin, Richard Wagner
March 28 – Falstaff, Giuseppe Verdi
April 13 – Der Rosenkavalier, Richard Strauss
April 27 – Champion, Terrence Blanchard
May 18 – Don Giovanni, W.A. Mozart
June 1 – Die Zaberflöte, W.A. Mozart
De Vito, a lifelong opera afficianado, lives in Bridgton with his wife, Karen, and is retired from the English department at Fryeburg Academy.
For information on the opera broadcast schedule, visit Fryeburgcademy.org/arts.
