This event is FREE!
We kindly request that you make a reservation through our website beforehand.

Deepen your experience and understanding of opera with Opera Basics — a series of five free, informative talks that will introduce you to the building blocks of opera while previewing the five productions of the Santa Fe Opera’s 2026 Season: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Handel’s Rodelinda, and the American premiere of Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe.

• Learn about the stories, the characters, the music, and the text
• Gain insight into how to listen to the singers and the orchestra
• Learn about the composers, the librettists, and the genesis of the operas
• Get tips on how to understand the sets, props, costumes, and the directors’ concepts

FREE with a reservation! Seating is first come, first served.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Kevin Vigneau
Kevin Vigneau is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico and principal oboe of the New Mexico Philharmonic. He has performed with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and served as principal oboe of the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra in South Africa and the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa in Portugal. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and Boston University, where he studied with Ronald Roseman, Laurence Thorstenberg and Ralph Romberg. His lifelong connection to opera began as a boy singing with the Opera Company of Boston under Sarah Caldwell. At UNM, he taught courses in music history including Music of the Baroque and Music in Vienna 1860–1920, and he has recorded as a soloist for the EMI, Centaur and Summit labels.