SPOTLIGHT LECTURE: Who’s Afraid of Opera? Discovering Music’s Grandest Art

Opera has a reputation: three hours long, sung in a language you may not speak, wrapped in a hundred years of tradition. It doesn’t have to feel that way.

Be an insider and join Kip Cranna, San Francisco Opera’s Dramaturg Emeritus, who spent four decades inside the company shaping seasons, writing supertitles, and shepherding new works like Dead Man Walking from first read-through to opening night.

This lecture is for you if:

• You’re curious about opera but don’t know where to start
• You know a little and want the story behind the story
• You already love it and want a deeper, sharper appreciation

Kip will pull back the curtain on how an opera actually comes together. The decisions, the personalities, the moments that don’t make it into the program notes, and share the kind of practical, unpretentious guidance that makes this grandest of art forms easier to enjoy, whatever your starting point.