Art & Design Courses

Learn about Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, one of the first operas ever written.

Discover Handel’s Messiah in this installment of First Nights, which will explore five masterpieces of western music.

Learn about Beethoven’s monumental 9th Symphony and forms of orchestral music.

Learn about Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, an iconic Romantic symphony that ushered in an era of narrative “program music.”

Learn the fascinating history of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, one of the most challenging and rewarding ballets ever written.

Learn fundamental principles of architecture — as an academic subject or a professional career — by studying some of history’s most important buildings.

Explore Chinese history and culture from the perspective of the individual through philosophical texts, literary works, and art.

Gain an understanding of history, museum studies, and curation by looking at, organizing, and interpreting art, artifacts, scientific curiosities, and the stuff of everyday life.

Study Baroque and Classical opera through Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Learn the music and cultural impact of three canonical operas from the 1800s: Les Huguenots, Das Rheingold, and Otello.

Thrive in the age of digital platforms in this course from Harvard Business School (HBS) Online.

An exploration of the haunting figure at the heart of one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays.

An exploration of the magnetic and ambivalent character of Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

Explore acts of storytelling in Shakespeare’s Othello alongside world-class artists who interpret Othello’s story in new forms and contexts today.

Learn how to read William Shakespeare's plays through his biography, Elizabethan and Jacobean history, and modern performance.