JHU OSHER ON ZOOM: MONDAYS, SEPTEMBER 15 TO OCTOBER 19, 2026

VIDEO PREVIEW      ARTIST BIOS      SYLLABUS      CLASSES:  [1]  [2]  [3]  [4]  [5]

Shakespeare's Sonnets include some of the most beautiful—and varied—love poetry ever written.* When his Romeo and Juliet meet, they discover their compatability by improvising a sonnet. Their love has inspired paintings like that of the Victorian artist Sir Frank Dicksee (detail as background above), orchestral music by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, and others, and popular songs such as Taylor Swift's Love Story. On the stage, their love lives on in operas by Gounod and others, Bernstein's West Side Story, and (albeit without words) the Prokofiev ballet. This course is about how such declarations and celebrations of love, spanning many centuries and such different media, endure as an essential part of our culture.

* See here and here for two very different interpretations of the celebrated Sonnet 18; interestingly, neither performer uses the standard Received Pronunciation accent.

Scroll down for a list of class topics and dates; please note that there is no class on September 21 (Yom Kippur). The fact that I use a different medium to illustrate each topic merely reflects the variety I plan for the course as a whole, not necessarily the content of that particular class. As each session is prepared, the RESOURCES tab under its image will turn GOLD, directing you to a specific page for that class, with a printable handout and often other infomation as well. rb.

	September 14
Robert Preston and Shirley Jones in The Music Man	RESOURCES

1. The Grammar of Love

Marian the Librarian in The Music Man knows the dictionary and grammar too, but is less assured when it comes to expressing feelings; fast-talking Harold Hill, the title character, knows all the moves. This introductory class is all about pronouns: the "I" exulting in love or hoping to find it; the "You" of the loved one being sweet-talked or serenaded; the "We" of the couple celebrating their shared feeling; and just possibly the "They" of former lovers looking back after separation. "Love" is an active verb, and we will consider all its actions.

	September 28
Adetomiwa Edun and Ellie Kendrick in Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe	RESOURCES

2. Saying it Straight

Romeo and Juliet meet in verse, propose in verse, and die with poetry as well as poison on their lips. This class is about great romantic pairings in many different media: the written word, the spoken stage, the operatic or Broadway duet, the ballet pas-de-deux, or the beat of a rock ballad. Not all the stories may end happily, but all begin with an unambiguous declaration of affection, and climax in a mutual celebration of joy.

	October 5
Carlos Acosta and Marianela Nuñez in La fille mal gardée at the Royal Ballet	RESOURCES

3. Saying it Slant

Not having words at their disposal, ballet characters must declare their love by other means. Colas and Lisette in Frederick Ashton's La fille mal gardée, for example, use a game of Cat's Cradle as a metaphor of their interlacing feelings. But very often characters cannot confess to love all; Rodgers and Hammerstein were masters at such obliquity: witness Laurey and Curley's mutual denial in Oklahoma or Julie Jordan's extended hypothetical in Carousel. This class will be about the many different ways of revealing one's love without actually saying so!

	October 12
Justina Gringyté and Alok Kumar in Carmen at Scottish Opera	RESOURCES

4. The Heat of the Moment

The title character in Bizet's Carmen has several arias exciting Corporal Don Jose to passion, making him lose his rank, betray his village fiancée, and become an outlaw, but the only significant duet they have together is just before he murders her at the end of the opera. Physical passion in real life may be the gateway to other more lasting forms of love, but on the stage it is typically associated with seduction or adultery—just look at the plots of just about any nineteenth-century opera. Morally despicable, maybe, but it leads to terrific theater!

	October 19
Wagner's music room at Tribschen, on Lake Lucerne	RESOURCES

5. Love is For Ever

One of the most beautiful celebrations of married love is Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, played by a group of chamber musicians to awake her on the morning of her birthday on Christmas Day 1870 in their house at Tribschen, Lake Lucerne: here it is in the original version, and here performed by an even smaller ensemble in its original setting. This final class will be about love that lasts until death, and the memory of a partner or perhaps a parent who has passed on, as in these songs by Elton John and Ed Sheeran. Sad, undoubtedly, but unspeakably beautiful.

 
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