Lirica Arts' Recital Series Combines Outreach and Education That Is Not Dumbed Down

Want to learn something about opera besides listening to wonderful singing? One could do worse than attending Lirica Arts’ Opera 101 recital series.

- Chang Tou Liang

OPERA QUEENS AND DIVAS OF THE BEL CANTO Lirica Arts Esplanade Recital Studio April 17

Its carefully curated and meticulously researched concerts are what the musical scene really needs — genuine outreach and education that is absolutely not dumbed down.

Its latest offering was a solid 95-minute treatise without intermission on the world of Italian bel canto opera. Listeners will already know something about this early 19th-century operatic trend of seamless melodies and elaborate ornamentation, and the usual composer suspects.

This concert, eruditely narrated by Shridar Mani and accompanied by pianist Samuel King, offered so much more about its interesting and often scandalous history. It began with castrati, young males surgically emasculated to retain pure, unbroken voices allied with muscular heft.

German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer’s