Blossoming in Vienna and spreading like a mania through Europe, the waltz proclaimed a new freedom of sexual expression and individual liberties in the early 19th century. Classical music and opera expert Saul Lilienstein traces the development of a musical form and a dance that changed history.
There are songs so familiar they seem part of us. In this series with writer and filmmaker Sara Lukinson, find out how some our favorites from the American songbook came to be and how they speak to generations of listeners. This session highlights Somewhere Over the Rainbow and You’ll Never Walk Alone.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Cairo’s lively music, theater, film, and cabaret scene was dominated by women who were entrepreneurs and owners as well as celebrities. Discover the rich histories of the independent figures who offered a new vision for women in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.
“The play’s the thing” declared Hamlet, but nowadays he could easily have substituted “the film.” Speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin combines commentary and piano demonstrations to explore how master composers such as William Walton, Nino Rota, Patrick Doyle, and others illuminate Shakespeare’s texts while helping us relate emotionally to his astonishing stories on the screen.
There are songs so familiar they seem part of us. In this series with writer and filmmaker Sara Lukinson, find out how some our favorites from the American songbook came to be and how they speak to generations of listeners. This session highlights This Land Is Your Land and Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Musicologist and pianist Daniel Freeman pays tribute to iconic composer Johann Sebastian Bach and some of his greatest orchestral works in this day highlighted by music and video recordings.
The Mouse rules! Over the last nine decades, the Walt Disney Company has transformed every facet of the entertainment business. Author Brian Rose examines the secrets behind the development of this still-growing powerhouse, tracing the remarkable evolution of a small cartoon studio in 1923 into the most powerful force in worldwide media today.
Historian Jennifer Paxton examines the history behind Shakespeare’s history plays and explores the fascinating ways in which he did—and did not—depart from what his contemporaries knew about their own past both to entertain his audience and to comment on the politics of his own day.
There are songs so familiar they seem part of us. In this series with writer and filmmaker Sara Lukinson, find out how some of our favorites from the American songbook came to be and how they speak to generations of listeners. This session highlights Summertime and My Favorite Things.
Historian and scholar Michele L. Simms-Burton, a former professor of African-American studies at Howard University examines the creators and the works that came alive during one of the most creative and intellectually productive eras in African American history, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
Join American music specialist and Gershwin scholar Robert Wyatt as he reviews the lives of the Gershwin brothers, from their simple roots, through their Tin Pan Alley apprenticeship, to the glory years that were too short.
Many film directors disguise their bold artistic intentions, often burying something quite profound beneath a story’s glossy surface. Join Yale University film professor Marc Lapadula for a dive into some remarkable examples of cinematic mastery that reflect technical innovation and complex thematic construction.
Saul Lilienstein takes a joyful and serious look at the Beatles’ music, its roots and influences, and its relationship to the period of social change that provided a backdrop to their years at the top of the charts.
