Lectures by Will Crutchfield
Tuesday Morning Music Class
  • News
  • Syllabus
  • Subscription
  • Location
  • Archives
    • Spring 2023
    • Winter 2023
    • Fall 2022
    • Spring 2022
    • Fall 2021
    • Spring 2021
    • Winter 2021
    • Fall 2020
    • Summer 2020 II
    • Summer 2020 I
    • Spring 2020
    • Fall 2019
    • Spring 2019 Opera Essential
    • Spring 2019 Wagner
    • Fall 2018
    • Spring 2018
    • Fall 2017
    • Spring 2017
    • Fall 2016
    • Spring 2016
    • Fall 2015
    • Spring 2015
    • Fall 2014
    • Spring 2014
    • Fall 2013
    • Spring 2013

Archives

Fall​ 2018
Sept 25  |  When Samson Met Dalilah  Nothing evokes the plush grandeur of Grand Opera quite like Saint-Saëns' Old-Testament epic. Perhaps a little dated? Faded, even? Not ​as long as voices turn up to fill the melodic and dramatic possibilities of two classic roles.
Related Performance: Metropolitan Opera / Samson et Dalila on 9/24, 9/28, 10/1, 10/5, 10/9, 10/13(m), 10/16, 10/20(m), 3/13, 3/16, 3/19, 3/23(m), 3/28

Oct 2   |  Puccini the Progressive, part 1  Puccini is the key to financial survival for opera houses worldwide, yet still under-rated as a musician. This year there is an emphasis on his later and more experimental scores; he never stopped searching for the new and the difficult.
Related Performance: Metropolitan Opera / La fanciulla del west on 10/4, 10/8, 10/12, 10/17, 10/20, 10/23, 10/27(m)

Oct 9  |  Romantic and Revolutionary  The title fits Hector Berlioz himself and the orchestra John Eliot Gardiner formed to play him on period instruments. Berlioz is the father of modern orchestration. If he needs to be played on old instruments, what doesn't? 
Related Performance: Carnegie Hall / Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique on 10/14(m) & 10/15 

Oct 16  |  Cine-opera - The Birth of a Genre?  Last year it was Buñuel and Thomas Ades, this year Hitchcock and Nic Muhly. Meanwhile, Dead Man Walking is showing signs of survival on the opera stage - and there are still others.
Related Performance: Metropolitan Opera / Marnie on 10/19, 10/22, 10/27, 10/31, 11/3

Oct 23  |  Let's Talk About Yuja (Without Looking)  The curator of this year's "Perspectives" at Carnegie is a superstar among superstars, and let's face it, everybody talks non-stop about her daring gowns and her "look." Let's listen to her play the piano and see if we can define her musical message.
Related Performance: Carnegie Hall / Yuja Wang on 10/26, 2/6, 4/10 , 5/1

Oct 30  |  NO CLASS 

Nov 6  |  "I found myself...not in Heaven, certainly..."  That's what the great Verdi said about the so-called "Prologue in Paradise" when he first heard Boito's Mefistofele. He's not the work's only detractor. Yet Boito became Verdi's most trusted collaborator, and his curious opera one of the most performed all over Italy.​
Related Performance: Metropolitan Opera / Mefistofele on 11/8, 11/12, 11/16, 11/19, 11/24, 11/27, 12/1(m)

Nov 13  |  What is a Waltz?  It was, among other things, a threat to public morals. But no single dance has generated so much immortal music. ​
Related Performance: New York Philharmonic / The Blue Danube on 11/15, 16, 17

Nov 20  |  Puccini the Progressive, part 2  After a detour towards Viennese operetta (!) and the disruption of a war, came a brilliant and searching set of miniatures. Each panel of Puccini's "triptych" is unlike anything he had done before. 
Related Performance: Metropolitan Opera / Il trittico on 11/23, 11/26, 11/30, 12/5, 12/8(m), 12/12, 12/15

Nov 27  |   Mastering Bel Canto  Will and some of the stars of next summer's Teatro Nuovo productions will discuss the American singer's life-path and training, and demonstrate some of the techniques that bring Italian Bel Canto to life. 
Related Performance: Teatro Nuovo 

Other Semesters

Spring 2019

Spring 2018

Fall 2017

Spring 2017

Fall 2016

Spring 2016

Fall 2015

Spring 2015

Fall 2014

Spring 2014

Fall 2013

Spring 2013

Questions? Please email WillCrutchfieldAssistant@gmail.com