study guides

Pittsburgh Opera's Study Guides are a concise introduction to the opera that includes:

• Characters
• Synopsis
• Biographies
• Articles related to the historical context of the opera.

Study Guides are posted in PDF format on each opera's main page prior to the opera's opening, and are available on paper at all performances. Additionally, you can download them below as they become available.

2023-24 Season

• The Barber of Seville
• The Flying Dutchman
• Iphigénie en Tauride
• Proving Up
• La Traviata
• The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson

2022-23 Season

• Rusalka
• The Marriage of Figaro
• Ariodante
• Il Trovatore
• Denis & Katya
• We Shall Not Be Moved

2021-22 Season

• The Magic Flute
• The Rose Elf
• In a Grove
• Carmen
• Blue 

2020-21 Season

• Così fan tutte
• Soldier Songs
• Charlie Parker's Yardbird
• Semele

2019-20 Season

• Don Giovanni
• Florencia en el Amazonas
• Alcina
• The Last American Hammer
• Carmen
• Norma

2018-19 Season

• Madama Butterfly
• Hansel & Gretel
• afterWARds - Mozart's Idomeneo Reimagined
• Glory Denied
• La bohème
• Don Pasquale

2017-2018 Season

• Tosca
• The Marriage of Figaro
• The Long Walk
• Savage Winter (formerly Ashes & Snow)
• Moby-Dick
• The Elixir of Love

2016-17 Season

• La traviata
• Salome
• Richard the Lionheart
• As One
• Turandot
• The Summer King - the Josh Gibson Story

2015-16 Season

• Nabucco
• Cosi fan tutte
• Little Women
• 27
• The Barber of Seville
• The Rake's Progress