Forbidden Love in Opera: Free Lecture with Video Clips at Brighton Library

From secret affairs to impossible passions, forbidden love has fueled some of opera’s most powerful moments. Join me as we explore the scandals, sacrifices, and soaring music behind opera’s most irresistible love stories.
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From Manon’s Seduction of Des Grieux as he prepares to enter the priesthood to the surrender of Tristan and Isolde to a power beyond their wills, we explore the tragedy of love that cannot be. Scenes from The Pearl Fishers, Turandot, La Rondine and many more explore the connections that society forbids.

This lecture is the third week of our free Lecture/Listening Series - Opera Unlocked: Stories, Sounds, and Secrets

Each spring, Opera Guild of Rochester invites opera lovers and the opera-curious alike to a free lecture series that is as entertaining as it is enlightening. Part talk, part curated video experience, these sessions provide historical background, musical insight, and dramatic context for operas and composers across the repertoire. Our goal is simple: to make opera more accessible, more understandable, and even more thrilling—especially works that can seem daunting at first encounter.

No RSVP necessary. Lecture will last until 7:45 PM.