Personally I enjoyed Amanda Hick’s mini-lecture on her passion for performing opera, and the history of opera. I especially liked the part when she elaborates on the idea of music theory, and the way it is so often used in opera to tell a story or further build a certain emotion. Things like using very dissonant, chords in order to evoke discomfort in the audience, to let them know that something really bad will happen soon. But it may just be due to the fact that I don’t share Amanda’s passion for opera, but I didn’t find the lecture especially riveting. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it and learned a lot, but it didn’t stand out too much from many of the other guest speakers we’ve had. The history of opera especially, was fairly information dense, and I found it challenging to follow along.