Courageous Women: Bizet’s Carmen and the Handmaid’s Tale

Are you a seasoned opera aficionado, new to or just plain curious about opera? Either way, join in to experience our expert opera buff, Kip Cranna and thrill to take part in this unique melodic journey. Kip will play and provide expert commentary on subtitled video examples highlighting the fortitude and defiance of these two fascinating operatic characters.  We’ll examine Bizet’s headstrong beauty Carmen, and the risk-taking heroine “Offred” in the Danish composer Poul Ruders’ adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s famed dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Both works are featured in the San Francisco Opera’s 2024 Fall Season.  

Clifford (Kip) Cranna, is the Dramaturg Emeritus (Scholar in Residence), with the San Francisco Opera. He is an Opera Appreciation Lecturer, at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) at University of California Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and Dominican University, and at Stanford Continuing Studies.