Settecento: Venice & Paris

The rediscovery of Pompeii elicits an international Neoclassicism in art and music, but Italy and France each give it their individual stamp.
Italian pairing: For Benedetto Marcello music is a vehicle for expressing text, and for Canaletto paint immortalizes impressions from the Grand Tour.
French pairing: Jacques-Louis David makes of death a moment of stasis, and Gluck sets out to reform the excesses of Baroque opera with Alceste.

What Makes It Italian? Studies in Contrast is a music listening and discussion group that meets online on the Zoom platform and is open to everyone.

Participation is free.

The group is led by Gina Crusco, who guides listening at Bard LLI and Riverdale Y, and who has been music instructor at The New School and director of Underworld Productions.

Please email ginacrusco@gmail.com to confirm your attendance and receive an invitation link.

What seems indescribable in music often becomes easy to name in the visual arts. So this series for the first time offers much to see as well as to hear. Each week an Italian pairing of music and art is held up against a similar pairing from elsewhere. Noting how the Italianate aesthetic contrasts with England, Spain, France, the Low Countries, Austria and the US will help us define more clearly “What Makes it Italian.”