Course Details
951: The Mozart and Da Ponte Operas
July 14-17
9:45 AM -
11:15 AM
In-Person
Mozart wrote three operas with Lorenzo Da Ponte. The first two, Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, are masterpieces, two of the greatest works in the Western canon. The third, Cosi Fan Tutte, is just a great opera. The course will set these works in the context of the classical music style and the tradition of opera writing at the time with an emphasis on how innovative these works were. We will look at the lives of Mozart, and of Da Ponte, who was born in a Jewish Ghetto outside of Venice, left the priesthood to become the court librettist in Vienna, and ended his career teaching Italian at Columbia University in NYC. We will watch substantial excerpts from the operas, accompanied with light musical analysis
Class Type: Appreciation
Class Format: In-Person
Hours of Reading: No reading
Study Group Leader(s):
Jeffrey GorskyI'm a lifelong classical music buff with a classical music collection of over 1000 CDs. I am a retired State Department lawyer and immigration law expert. I am the author of Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain (University of Nebraska; Press/Jewish Publication Society 2015). An article adapted from the book about the early history of racism appeared in the popular webzine Atlas Obscura. I have given book talks for Smithsonian Associates, Voice of America, Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, and libraries, bookstores, etc. I also wrote numerous articles on immigration law and policy for Law360, Forbes and other publications. I've taught courses at OLLI on the history of the Jews of Spain and on silent film comedy.