Syllabus
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10:30am-12:00pm
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Spring 2020 (Click to download syllabus in pdf)
Mar 24 The Wearing of the Green
One week past St. Patrick’s Day, a celebration of Irish singers - especially Irish tenors - especially the greatest of them all, Count John McCormack.
Mar 31 Beethoven: The First Quarter-Millennium
Here we are at another anniversary year, with sonata, symphony, and quartet cycles in progress every week. No composer so embodies the concept of good music as moral uplift. Has that become a burden? Is Ludwig holding up or rolling over?
Apr 7 Simon Boccanegra: “It is sad, but it must be sad”
Verdi’s gloomiest opera, but one of his most profound and beautiful, returns to the Met.
[Apr 14 no class]
Apr 21 The Art of Accompaniment
Today, top pianists routinely take a turn at song recitals (Kissin with Renee Fleming; Thibaudet with Gerald Finley, just to name a few from this season). The unlikely career of Gerald Moore (1899-1987) paved their way.
Apr 28 Katya Kabanova
Leos Janacek’s operas haunt and fascinate without ever quite becoming familiar. His power as a dramatist is easier to grasp, but what makes the score work?
May 5 Cinco de Mayo
Mexico in music’s history and music in Mexico’s - with some beautiful surprises and super-rare recordings.
May 12 Rossini in Naples
We love Rossini for his frothy comedies, but when he could do whatever he wanted as the undisputed musical ruler of Naples, he wrote nine towering “serious” operas in a row. Many devotees consider them his crowning glory. With guest soloists
May 19 Donizetti at the Hofkapelle
An almost unknown facet of Donizetti’s whirlwind career is the questing, mysterious sacred music composed at the end of his life for the most unlikely destination: the Imperial Court Chapel of Vienna. With guest soloists
One week past St. Patrick’s Day, a celebration of Irish singers - especially Irish tenors - especially the greatest of them all, Count John McCormack.
Mar 31 Beethoven: The First Quarter-Millennium
Here we are at another anniversary year, with sonata, symphony, and quartet cycles in progress every week. No composer so embodies the concept of good music as moral uplift. Has that become a burden? Is Ludwig holding up or rolling over?
Apr 7 Simon Boccanegra: “It is sad, but it must be sad”
Verdi’s gloomiest opera, but one of his most profound and beautiful, returns to the Met.
[Apr 14 no class]
Apr 21 The Art of Accompaniment
Today, top pianists routinely take a turn at song recitals (Kissin with Renee Fleming; Thibaudet with Gerald Finley, just to name a few from this season). The unlikely career of Gerald Moore (1899-1987) paved their way.
Apr 28 Katya Kabanova
Leos Janacek’s operas haunt and fascinate without ever quite becoming familiar. His power as a dramatist is easier to grasp, but what makes the score work?
May 5 Cinco de Mayo
Mexico in music’s history and music in Mexico’s - with some beautiful surprises and super-rare recordings.
May 12 Rossini in Naples
We love Rossini for his frothy comedies, but when he could do whatever he wanted as the undisputed musical ruler of Naples, he wrote nine towering “serious” operas in a row. Many devotees consider them his crowning glory. With guest soloists
May 19 Donizetti at the Hofkapelle
An almost unknown facet of Donizetti’s whirlwind career is the questing, mysterious sacred music composed at the end of his life for the most unlikely destination: the Imperial Court Chapel of Vienna. With guest soloists