Music   

In this class we will view and discuss four of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s late operas: Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) — all with libretti by the composer’s great collaborator, Lorenzo da Ponte — and his final opera, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). The videos are filmed live in magnificent opera houses with superb conductors, and brilliant singers, and include performances from Teatro a la Scala in Milan, the Salzburg Festival in Austria, and The Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Glyndbourne Festival in Britain. Each opera is about three hours long and will be viewed over two class sessions. Written material will be provided and discussion topics will include Mozart’s life and musical style, the staging, the stories, and more.

Repeat in-person course. Format includes lecture, discussion, and film.

Music has long provoked debate, from Beethoven and Stravinsky’s bold innovations to Broadway works like Annie Get Your Gun and South Pacific, now revisited through modern concerns about race, consent, and gender. Is political correctness enriching art or erasing cultural heritage? We will also examine plagiarism and borrowing in pop and film music, with cases involving The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Peter Frampton. This course blends audiovisuals, anecdotes, and humor to explore music’s most controversial moments.

Why do so many great violinists also become composers? This course will explore the fascinating legacy of violinist-composers, including Baroque virtuosos like Heinrich Biber, Romantic legends like Niccolò Paganini, and 20th century innovators like George Enescu and Grazyna Bacewicz. Through listening and discussing, we will examine how these artists wrote music tailored to their instruments and themselves. Taught by a professional violinist, this course offers a behind-the-strings look at how performance and composition intertwine.

Think “boogie shoes” and “disco” along with solo music from Streisand, Ronstadt, and Manilow and you’ll get a glimpse of this course. The BeeGees, Led Zeppelin, K.C. and The Sunshine Band, and The Eagles represent groups to be heard. Disco stars like Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, and Michael Jackson will entertain. We’ll pay homage to blues man B.B. King. Using videos, discussion, and live piano music we’ll explore the hits and performers that made it to the top of the charts. This repeat course will also cover the news of the decade. No text is required. Can you dig it? Repeat in-person course. Format includes lecture, discussion, and film.

The vast extent of popular music available on YouTube is truly awesome, and it’s all for free! In this course, we’ll spend eight weeks exploring six decades of pop music of multiple genres. Remember The Ed Sullivan Show, Perry Como Show, Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, British Broadcasting System’s Top ‘o’ the Pops, etc.? We’ll tune in. Big bands of the 1930s? Check. Crooners of the 1950s? Yessiree. Girl groups of the early 1960s? Yup. Late 1960s British Invasion? Got ‘em, mate. Singer-songwriters of the 1970s? You betcha. We’ll cover about six decades of pop music from the 1930s to the 1980s. Special emphasis will be given to the 1960s, with its happy mashup of rock, folk, soul, gimmick songs, and many others. Repeat in-person course. Format includes lecture and discussion.