5 out of 5 stars.
Brilliant!
Date: May 21, 2010
"Although my wife is an opera singer, I have little background in opera. I really enjoyed this course - I think Prof. Greenberg is one of the best professors in TTC! He is very clear, very enthusiastic about his subject and very comprehensive (without 'dragging' the subject(s)).
The course is organised time-chronologically, from vocal expression during the middle ages until the early 20th century (Puccini, Strauss etc.). It also covers the various regional opera style developments in Europe - starting with Italy, and then French, Germany and Russia.
I tremendously enjoyed the opera period covering the bel canto style (Rossini - e.g., 'The Barber of Seville') and the operas by Mozart (including opera buffa 'The Marriage of Figaro').
Even my wife, who is an opera singer and was educated at the Royal Academy of Music in London, enjoyed this course as well. She said many times that Prof Greenberg is very good and very 'spot on'.
The only area I would recommend Prof Greenberg to edit / modify is the early lectures when he was covering the vocal expression during the middle ages (plainchant, polyphony etc) in 2 lectures. I felt these two lectures 'dragged' too much, and I actually stopped listening to the lectures for a few weeks at this point in the course. But once I hit Opera Seria and Opera Buffa (from around lecture 9), I can't stop listening to this course until the end!
Overall, this is a brilliant course. I learnt a lot from it and have really gained a lot of understanding on different styles and composers of opera. Well done, Prof Greenberg and TTC!"
