THE INTERNATIONAL WORLD
OF THE SOPRANOS
Instructor:  Giuseppe Albanese
Recipient of the 2000 LLS Excellence in Teaching Award

Course Description:  They play some of the world’s most romantic heroines and they do it with incredible style and beauty.  They are dramatic, exciting, tempestuous, and sometimes fragile.  The sopranos, love interest of every great opera, come from many lands and cultures.  Maestro Albanese explores six memorable “Divas” in this retrospective with documentaries featuring extensive performance footage and some materials never before presented.
Six Lectures:

Set One:    
          1.  From Greece:  Maria Callas.  A newly released documentary narrated by her close friend Franco Zeffirelli,
               brings light to the enigma that was “La Divina”.
          2.  From Austria:  Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.  A self-portrait narrated by the soprano, who established a
               legendary status in Europe with memorable interpretations of opera’s greatest roles.
          3.  From New Zealand:  Kiri Te Kanawa.  Coming from a mixed cultural background, the soprano explains
               how she overcame many obstacles to achieve an international reputation.

Set Two:    
          4.  From Canada:  Teresa Stratas.  Intense, spiritual, fatalistic, the tiny soprano is amazed at her journey
               from immigrant daughter to world-famous performing artist.
          5.  From the U.S.A.:  Renee Fleming.  Perfect “all-American” good girl, Fleming undergoes an incredible
               transformation on the lyric stage delivering spectacular performances.
          6.  From Russia:  Anna Netrebko.  The newest “kid on the opera block,” Anna has stunning good looks,
               a devilish personality and the voice of an angel.

Biographical Information:  Giuseppe Albanese attended the University of Vermont and graduated with a degree in history in 1966.  In 1989, after five years of intensive study, he developed a dynamic educational program entitled, The Joy of Opera.  For the past 16 years, he has lectured extensively on many operatic subjects and produced a series of video documentaries.