Lectures by Will Crutchfield
Tuesday Morning Music Class
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Archives

Fall 2015

September 29  |  Opera at the Crossroads
Who performs?  Who directs?  Who decides?  The Met's season opener - Verdi's Otello in a new production by Bartlett Sher - offers an occasion to ask which way the operatic winds are blowing, and to put the New York scene in an international context.  

October 6  |  When Wagner Still Wrote "Operas"
The composer who changed everything famously called his mature works "music dramas," to distinguish them from what opera houses had performed before.  But he had first made his way with traditional operas, as the Met revival of Tannhäuser (opening Oct. 8) gives occasion to remember.  

October 13  |  Song of Norway, Revisited
Which is the real Edvard Grieg -- the modernist master hailed at the dawn of the 20th century?  Or the old-fashioned sentimentalist relegated to marginal status in the postwar era?   The Philadelphia Orchestra, bringing the Peer Gynt Suite to Carnegie on Oct. 13, calls it "ever-popular," but in fact it has become a rarity. 

October 20  |  How to Listen to Old Records (and Why)
The primitive sound documents that we hear from time to time in our class represent a precious artistic link to the past, and also a rich database for important hard-core research.  But they are still under-appreciated in both respects; they challenge our minds and (thanks to primitive technology) our ears.  This class will be a "user's guide" to grasping their treasures.  

October 27  |  The Virgin and the Harlot
Handel's last oratorio, Theodora (at Tully Hall Oct. 31), makes radiant music of a Christian martyr's dedication to her purity; Berg's last opera, Lulu (opening in a new Met production Nov. 5) manages to make radiant music out of transcendent impurity. 

November 3  |  Troubled Hero  
The great Canadian tenor Jon Vickers, who passed away at 89 in July, gave unforgettable portrayals of life's troubled "outsiders."  A memorial tribute to a unique artist, with personal recollections and rare unpublished recordings.  

November 10  |  Beethoven Today  
When America aspired to artistic maturity in European terms, the Beethoven symphony cycle was the emblem of high culture.  What does it mean for the 21st century?  Simon Rattle - the former enfant terrible who now leads the august Berlin Philharmonic - plays all nine at Carnegie Nov. 17-21. 

November 17  |  American Idols  
We tend to talk about "crossover" as though it were something new, but in the golden age of American popular song, there was not much of a divide to cross.  As we'll hear in this program devoted mostly to the 20s, 30s, and 40s, Grand Opera and Tin Pan Alley had a lot to say to one another.   

December 1  |  The Pearlfishers at last! 
Throughout the Rudolf Bing era, Bizet's Pêcheurs de perles routinely topped the polls of audience wish-lists, but the piece was considered cursed by its weak showing back in 1916 (three performances only, despite Caruso in the cast).  Fully a hundred years later, its beauties will get a second chance at the Met.

Other Semesters

Spring 2019

Fall 2018

Spring 2018

Fall 2017

Spring 2017

Fall 2016

Spring 2016

Spring 2015

Fall 2014

Spring 2014

Fall 2013

Spring 2013

Questions? Please email WillCrutchfieldAssistant@gmail.com