“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” (Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II). This course will look at the troubled reigns of royal rulers as portrayed on the operatic stage, and the political context in which these operas were created and performed. From the earliest days of opera to the present, the stage has been a place where audiences receive and react to political messages, sometimes hidden and sometimes overt. We will examine how Enlightenment philosophies challenged the autocracies of the 17th–21st centuries, as well as the autocratic response. The course will include relevant audio and video operatic excerpts.