Renaissance Academy Winter/Spring 2013 Lectures & Life Enrichment Program

Beethoven: Tortured Titan Option #1 – NC4395 – Naples Center January 28 at 1:30pm – 3pm, Monday – 1.5 hours

$20 / $25 Option #2 – AT4396 – Atrium (Ft. Myers) February 19 at 1:30pm – 3pm, Tuesday – 1.5 hours

Choose one of the course options above. This lecture will address the complex relationship between a composer, his music, and his time. Beethoven achieved greatness despite being deaf, sickly, and financially challenged! We will examine Beethoven’s tortured childhood, his personality, relationships with women, his role as a surrogate father, and his immense contributions to music. Instructor: Mr. Lee Silvan

Vivaldi’s Venice – “A City of Music, Masks and Mischief”

$20 / $25

NC4397 – Naples Center – February 4 at 1:30pm – 3pm, Monday – 1.5 hours Dr. Tom Turicchi will present an exploration of Vivaldi’s home city of Venice. In the 1700s, Venice was one of the most magnificent cities in all Europe. To the British and northern Europeans, Venice was the “locus of decadent Italianate allure.” It was a city of music, splendid churches, palaces, beautiful theatres, and a lifestyle dedicated to hedonism. Carnevale went on for six months. Venetians were allowed to wear masks in public from the first week in October to Lent, adding mystery and intrigue to everyday life. We will integrate Venice in the early 1700s and samples of Vivaldi’s music, with the goal of enhancing your enjoyment of Vivaldi’s extraordinary gift and the unique wonder that was Venice. Instructor: Dr. Tom Turicchi

Understanding Classical Music Option #1 – AT4398 – Atrium (Ft. Myers) February 6 at 1:30pm – 3pm, Wednesday – 1.5 hours

$20 / $25 Option #2 – NC4399 – Naples Center February 15 at 2pm – 3:30pm, Friday – 1.5 hours

Choose one of the course options above. Concerts are magical experiences if you know how to listen. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to enjoy concerts, symphonies, concertos, overtures, sonatas, suites, and chamber music knowing what to listen for and understanding what is happening? Here’s a golden opportunity to have what composers “do” explained in simple, easy-to-understand, language and concepts. Don’t be intimidated by classical music anymore and learn to enjoy it! Instructor: Mr. Lee Silvan

Songs From the Stage and Screen

$64 / $79

AT4400 – Atrium (Ft. Myers) – February 6, 13, 20, 27 at 1:30pm – 3:30pm, Wednesdays – 8 hours Participants may register for the series above (AT4400) or for any individual lectures below. “The American Musicals” on both stage and screen from the early years to 1949 – the composers, the lyricists, the choreographers, the dancers, the actors, and most of all, the singers and their songs. Instructor: Mr. Glenn Fraser

The Early Years – Broadway and Beyond

$24 / $29

AT4401 – Atrium (Ft. Myers) – February 6 at 1:30pm – 3:30pm, Wednesday – 2 hours We will explore the early influences on Broadway musicals from the first productions in America in the 1750s to 1919. In 1903, Victor Herbert’s “Babes in Toyland” appeared on Broadway and in the following year George M. Cohan introduced the song “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Franz Lehar’s “The Merry Widow” gave us “I Love You So” (the Merry Widow Waltz) while Victor Herbert’s “Naughty Marietta” gave us “I’m Falling in Love With Someone.” Jerome Kern’s “They Didn’t Believe Me” and Sigmund Romberg’s “Auf Wiedersehen” are from this period. Vernon and Irene Castle set the stage for all future dance couples and Harry Fox gave the world the Foxtrot.

The Roaring Twenties

$24 / $29

AT4402 – Atrium (Ft. Myers) – February 13 at 1:30pm – 3:30pm, Wednesday – 2 hours The Roaring Twenties heralded an age of innovation and pleasure as “George White’s Scandals” and the “Ziegfeld Follies” competed with the “passing shows” of the decade. Jerome Kern’s “Good Morning Dearie” appeared in 1921. Rudolf Friml’s “Rose Marie” opened in 1924 as did Sigmund Romberg’s “The Student Prince.” Rudolf Friml returned to Broadway with “The Vagabond King.” George Gershwin’s “Oh! Kay” and Sigmund Romberg’s “The Desert Song” opened on Broadway just a few days apart; but the real showstoppers of the decade were Jerome Kern’s “Showboat” on stage and Al Jolson in “The Jazz Singer” on screen.