Opera Wilmington and Osher Livelong Learning Institute at UNCW continue their collaboration to bring you Opera Talks focused on two Met Opera Live in HD screenings in April and May.

UNCW opera historian and bassist Dr. Helena Kopchick Spencer again guides Opera Talk attendees through the stories behind the operas as well as the operas themselves.

Coming up next is Eugene Onegin, at times celebratory, at times poignant and heartbreaking. Timing is everything in this opera, which Tchaikovsky based on a verse novel by Alexander Pushkin. Onegin, a man of society, gets his timing all wrong, rejecting the love of Tatiana, a country girl, when they first meet.

When he sees her again five years later, he realizes that he loves her deeply. Tatiana is now married, however, and refuses to leave her husband even though she still harbors great affection for Onegin.

Expanding our understanding of the opera and the world in which it takes place is the purpose of Opera Talks. Kopchick Spencer brings her enthusiasm, vast knowledge and sense of humor to each one.

The final session, May 27, spotlights El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, a contemporary work by Gabriela Lena Frank. This “last dream” of the famous artists is fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth. Frida Kahlo leaves the underworld on the Day of the Dead to unite briefly on earth with her lover Diego Rivera.