View of The Santa Fe Opera under a double rainbow at 301 Opera Drive in Santa Fe. Courtesy/SFO
The Santa Fe Opera News:
The Opera InSight video series explores the psychological foundations of the productions in Santa Fe Opera’s 2025 Festival Season. We track opera as a mode of expression for intense human emotions, such as the longing for love or the desire for revenge. Through stories and characters, both comedic and tragic, opera acts as a reflection of our human experience and Opera InSight holds up the mirror.
Watch each segment for FREE on the Santa Fe Opera YouTube Channel.
Segment 1: La bohème
Examines the bro-mance and romance of Puccini’s classic love story, La bohème. Delve into the psychology of love and loss, as well as the meaning of the director’s choice to set the production during the period between the world wars.
Segment 2: The Marriage of Figaro
Embraces the twists and turns of Mozart’s most famous romcom, The Marriage of Figaro. This episode explores the narrative force of the “love triangle” and discusses the opera’s serious lessons about life and love on its way to its inevitable happy ending.
Segment 3: Rigoletto
Explores the psychology of revenge that permeates the plot of Verdi’s Rigoletto. The opera asks us to consider the psychology of free will and choice over impulsive action, as well as the powerful influence that circumstances impose on us.
Segment 4: The Turn of the Screw
Introduces a psychological thriller: Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. The eerie music of the score captivates as we analyze the narrative ambiguity that can be read as either a ghost story or a tragic tale of an unreliable narrator’s descent into madness, depending on how you look at it.
Segment 5: Die Walküre
Considers Wagner’s Die Walküre. Known for its music, which is as majestic as the mythical and archetypal story it tells, the opera resonates with genuinely human dilemmas about love, conflicts between head and heart, and the choices that shape the paths our lives take.
Dr. Don Fineberg
About Presenter Dr. Fineberg
Don Fineberg is a psychiatrist. His presentations focus on a variety of topics related to clinical practice, education and the arts, especially opera. He has led Opera and Psychology seminars for more than 20 years. For the last six festival seasons, his Opera InSight video series appears on the Santa Fe Opera website and YouTube channel. Opera InSight enhances your enjoyment of opera by taking a deeper dive into opera’s psychological themes: our passions, problems and foibles that make us human.