May 15, 2017

Free Introductions to 27 Great Operas on Audio

You can now listen to 27 hour-long introductions of famous operas written by Thomson Smillie and read by David Timson. The introductions are part of the “Opera Explained” series from the classical music record label NAXOS, and they offer them streaming through Spotify. Whether you are a classical music expert, or you are new to opera, these introductions serve as one of the most accessible ways to learn about and appreciate opera. The introductions contain popular excerpts from NAXOS classical recordings of the operas. David Timson is a wonderful narrator and in each introduction he provides context for the opera before going into the story and highlighting the best musical moments. You’ll also learn a great deal about the composer of each opera from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Giacomo Puccini. Please Note: In order to listen to these introductions you’ll need a free Spotify account. You can listen for free with occasional ads and they also have Spotify software for easier listening on your computer or smart phone. If you want to listen ad-free and you love music as well, we can’t recommend Spotify Premium highly enough.

Here’s a Spotify playlist we made of all the operas in the Opera Explained series. We’ve added the first track of each album to the playlist. Click on the album for the full introduction.

Introductions to Operas on Audio from our Opera Explained Series Spotify Playlist

Here are all 27 introductions that we feature on LearnOutLoud.com:

27 Introductions to Operas by Thomson Smillie

If you’re wondering where to start, we’ll recommend some of the most beloved operas of all time:

Aida: An Introduction to Verdi’s Opera

The Barber of Seville: An Introduction to Rossini’s Opera

Carmen: An Introduction to Bizet’s Opera

Fidelio: An Introduction to Beethoven’s Opera

La Boheme: An Introduction to Puccini’s Opera

The Marriage of Figaro: An Introduction to Mozart’s Opera

In addition to these opera introductions, we’ll also feature today 11 composer biographies by Jeremy Siepmann that are offered by NAXOS on Spotify:

11 Biographies on the Life & Works of Famous Composers by Jeremy Siepmann

These 4-hour introductions to the composers alternate between telling their life story and featuring recordings of their musical works. Some of the composers you may have heard of include:

The Life and Works of Bach

The Life and Works of Mozart

The Life and Works of Beethoven

The Life and Works of Tchaikovsky

The Life & Works of Giuseppe Verdi

Enjoy these introductions to some of the greatest composers and operas of all time!

May 3, 2017

45 Free Massive Open, Online Courses from UC-Irvine on YouTube

In the past we’ve featured over 100 free courses from UC San Diego which present podcasts on audio (and some on video) of courses from 2007 to the present from the University of California at San Diego. You can browse them here:

Browse Over 100 Course Podcasts from UC San Diego

Today we’re featuring 45 free courses offered by the University of California at Irvine. Since 2012 UC-Irvine has been offering courses through their UCI open, online course initiative and they are now offering these courses on YouTube. Many of these courses are in the areas of chemistry, physics, Earth science, math, and engineering. You can browse them all there:

45 Free Video Courses from UC-Irvine on LearnOutLoud.com

And here they all are listed by their educational department:

Biological Sciences 93: DNA To Organisms

Biological Sciences 94: Organisms to Ecosystems

Biological Sciences M121: Immunology with Hematology

Chemistry 1P: Preparation for General Chemistry

Chemistry 1B: General Chemistry

Chemistry 107: Inorganic Chemistry

Chemistry 128: Introduction to Chemical Biology

Chemistry 131A: Quantum Principles

Chemistry 131B: Molecular Structure & Statistical Mechanics

Chemistry 131C: Thermodynamics and Chemical Dynamics

Chemistry 201: Organic Reaction Mechanisms I

Chemistry 202: Organic Reaction Mechanisms II

Chemistry 203: Organic Spectroscopy

Chemistry 51C: Organic Chemistry

Chemistry 5: Scientific Computing Skills

Earth System Science 1: Introduction to Earth System Science

Earth System Science 5: The Atmosphere

Earth System Science 21: On Thin Ice: Climate Change and the Cryosphere

Earth System Science 23: Air Pollution and Global Environments

Education 151: Language and Literacy

Education 320: Teaching PE & Health, Elementary Education

Engineering CEE 20: Engineering Problem Solving

Engineering MAE 91: Intro to Thermodynamics

Engineering MAE 130A: Intro to Fluid Mechanics

Engineering 165/265: Advanced Manufacturing Choices

Math 2A: Calculus

Math 4: Math for Economists

Math 113B: Mathematical Biology

Math 131A: Introduction to Probability and Statistics

Math 176: Math of Finance

Physics 3A: Basic Physics I

Physics 3B: Basic Physics II

Physics 3C: Basic Physics III

Physics 7C: Classical Physics

Physics 20B: Cosmology

Physics 20E: Life in the Universe

Physics 50: Math Methods

Physics 255: Einstein’s General Relativity and Gravitation

Psych 9A: Psychology Fundamentals

Public Health 1: Principles of Public Health

Public Health 91: Disparities in Healthcare

Public Health 194A: Clinical and Translational Research Preparatory I

The Power of Microeconomics

The Power of Macroeconomics

Interestingly enough those last two economics courses are taught by American economist Peter Navarro who currently serves as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, and the Director of the White House National Trade Council, a newly-created entity in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government. Learn about some of the economic principles guiding the Trump administration in these two free courses.

Navarro is the author of over a dozen books and has also taught four Modern Scholar courses that we offer on sale on LearnOutLoud:

Big Picture Investing

Big Picture MBA

Principles of Economics: Business, Banking, Finance, and Your Everyday Life

Waking Dragon: The Emerging Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the World

Navarro has long been a critic of China and its role in global trade and that last course is certain to be of interest when it comes to his guidance of U.S. trade policy in the coming years. For a free lecture he gave on one of his books on China check out this talk from C-SPAN:

Peter Navarro on The Coming China Wars

Of course all of our over 1,200 free audio & video courses can be found in our Free Courses Collection here:

LearnOutLoud.com Free Courses Collection