Musical Highlights are brief opportunities to:

• Help students make sense of opera
• Whet their interest in upcoming Metropolitan Opera HD transmissions

Each one focuses on music from the accompanying CD recording or audio clips available on this website. They direct students’ attention toward highlights and details that can organize and illuminate their viewing of the transmission. The descriptions below offer listening pointers. These “mini-lessons” will in practice take up no more than a few minutes of class time. They’re designed to help you bring opera into your classroom while minimizing interruption of your ongoing curriculum. Feel free to use as many as you like.

Madama Butterfly Musical Highlights:

A Musical Marker: A Close Look at the Fugue
The Life of a Sailor: A Close Look at “Dovunque al mondo” as a Character Study
The Day Will Come: A Close Look at “Un bel dì” as Aria and Motif