Opera con Brio, LLC, Today

Opera con Brio  provides in-depth opera reviews and features written by Richard B. Beams, MALS, opera lecturer and reviewer and past recipient of two NEH Fellowships, one in Opera and Literature and the other in Verdi Studies. Mr. Beams attends opera festivals and performances locally as well as world-wide.

Opera con Brio in the Past

For 36 years OCB was also an opera-education program conducted by Mr. Beams. Classes, which ranged from seven to fourteen weeks, included lectures, discussion and recorded musical examples. Classes most often focussed on the works of one composer or occasionally on a comparative theme such as The Many Faces of Orfeo.  Participants traveled all over the world with Mr. Beams to special opera productions and opera festivals to experience live performances of works they had studied. Tours were always associated with specific courses and were open only to registrants in those courses. Beginning in 2004, OCB tours were offered in conjunction with World Cultural Tours. 

In the Spring of 2015, Richard Beams retired from teaching semester-long courses in Opera con Brio and from leading related tours. In his honor, many past and present OCB students contributed generously to two local music institutions, Emmanuel Music and Boston Baroque, to support performances in the season of 2015-2016 in the name of Opera con Brio. For fifteen years the pre-opera lecturer for Boston Lyric Opera, Mr. Beams continues to lecture or offer a mini-course or class occasionally.

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Richard Beams               Photo:  Peter Richman