About

This is the dedicated website for the Four Seasons at Beaumont Opera Club. The mission statement is short and simple:

Learn, Share, Enjoy

As retired senior citizens we now have the time required to explore the arts in detail. The mission statement of Four Seasons Opera Club is to be a vehicle to learn, share, and enjoy the classical performing arts -- both opera and ballet.

Opera has been described by conductors and singers as the finest entertainment form in all of Western Civilization. Opera combines stories, music, dance and theatre in a single, combined art form. Opera began in central Italy when it was still a collection of ducal city-states. As did the Roman emperors before them, the Italian Dukes hosted grand entertainments to show off the power of their city-states. Over time stories of gods, Emperors and Kings gave way to more accessible characters and themes, eventually leading to the starving students in La Bohème, and the courtesan in La Traviata. Today, operas are commissioned and written about a wide variety of subjects and story lines. Examples of this wide spectrum: "Nixon in China" by John Adams about Nixon opening China to trade and diplomacy, and "Satyagraha" by Philip Glass about Mahatma Ghandi's development of non-violent protest as a political tool that would eventually lead to the fall of the British Raj. While Opera still flourishes to this day, along the way it branched into Operatta (think Gilbert & Sullivan or Franz Lehar). The shorter, lighter operettas were also described as "light opera" or musical theater. That genre is now known as musicals or simply, Broadway. Since its creation in 1935 by George Gershwin, "Porgy and Bess" has been described as both an Opera and a Broadway show. And note that some "Broadway" shows have reversed the trend and are very grand or or very epic such as "Phantom of the Opera" or "Les Miserables."

What all operas have in common are great stories to tell. The first opera created in 1597, Dafne, tells the story of Apollo's pursuit of the nymph Dafne based on a story by the ancient Greek poet, Ovid. Another great story, "Les Miserables" is based on Victor Hugo's novel of the same name.

The Four Seasons Opera Club offers an opportunity to learn, share and enjoy the rich heritage of the cultural artistry of Western Civilization as revealed through the operatic and balletic canons.

Using this Website

This site has 6 main sections:

  • About

    • This section you are reading now.

  • Learn

    • Educational resources. Primarily links to YouTube videos. We are lucky to live in the golden age of television and streaming. Take advantage of the seemingly bottomless reservoir of educational resources there.

  • Calendar

    • The club schedule for titles to explore. The nominal goal is to present a good version with English subtitles. When appropriate there will also be links to better versions that do not have English subtitles. Over time, the avid opera student will learn enough of the other opera languages to read the original librettos.

    Click on the month image to access that month's offerings.

    Please excuse the fact that some of the pages are currently placeholders. Those pages will be completed in time.

  • Long

    • A curated collection of works that are longer in performance time than the 3-hour venue restriction at the Four Seasons theatre.

  • Breeze Archive

    • An archive of the Opera Club articles in the monthly Four Seasons Breeze magazine.

  • Research

    • More rigorous learning resources for the very serious learners.

  • History

    • WIP: A stretch goal effort to place the history of the performing arts in geo-historical context.

  • Attend

    • Curated lists of the current or upcoming opera season of local and destination opera companies. Intended as a travel planning or bucket list resource.

  • Ballet

    • Great opera companies also host a ballet company. This is our curation of ballets and ballet learning.