San Francisco Opera’s Dramaturg Emeritus Kip Cranna will take us on a video journey (with English subtitles) exploring the many varied ways that operas have expressed in drama and song our basic human aspirations to be free. Musical examples will include the famous chorus “Va, pensiero,” the song of the Jewish people seeking freedom from bondage in Verdi’s opera Nabucco.

Clifford (Kip) Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus of San Francisco Opera, served on the staff for over forty years and was Director of Music Administration for over thirty years. In 2008 he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company’s highest honor, and in 2012 he received the Bernard Osher Cultural Award for distinguished efforts to bring excellence to a cultural institution. In 2014 he received the Star of Excellence Award for outstanding service to the programs of the San Francisco Opera Guild. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University. For thirty years he was Program Editor and Lecturer for the Carmel Bach Festival. He lectures and writes frequently on music and teaches at the Fromm Institute at USF and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at U.C. Berkeley, Dominican University, and San Francisco State.