How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition Season 1 Episode 28 Classical-era Opera

Explore the development of Classical opera buffa: the ideal operatic genre for the Classical era's more realistic plots, more "natural" music, and more common characters, over the Baroque era's formulaic nature in opera seria and the domination of these operas by singers and virtuosic singing. Finally, we will sample Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's opera La Serva Padrona.