Opera Book Club
The HD Live in Schools virtual Opera Book Club resumes this year, inviting students to join online conversations with authors, experts, and Met artists who have helped bring these stories to both page and stage. This fall, students will focus on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Hours, the basis for both its Oscar–winning film adaptation and Kevin Puts’s new opera. In the spring, students will turn their attention to two plays: Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, the primary source for Verdi’s Falstaff; and Michael Cristofer’s Man in the Ring, based on his libretto for Terence Blanchard’s Champion. The Met Opera Education team works with publishers to provide students and teachers in participating districts with free copies of featured books.
2022-23 Schedule
Our meetings will be hosted on StreamYard and livestreamed to the Met Opera Education YouTube and Facebook pages. Students will be able to submit video questions for special guests in advance of each session.
Selection #1: The Hours by Michael Cunningham [watch sessions here]
- Thursday, December 1 @ 3:30pm EST with Greg Pierce, librettist for The Hours
- Thursday, December 8 @ 3:30pm EST with Julie Carlsen, assistant curator of “Virginia Woolf: A Modern Mind” at the New York Public Library
- Thursday, December 15 @ 3:30pm EST with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano starring in The Hours
Selection #2: The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
- No livestreams for this selection
Selection #3: Man in the Ring by Michael Cristofer [register here]
- Thursday, April 13 @ 3:30pm EST (guest to be announced)
- Thursday, April 20 @ 3:30pm EST (guest to be announced)
- Thursday, April 27 @ 3:30pm EST (guest to be announced)
