Film, Music & Theater   

The American Film Institute released a list of the best film scores, which includes many well-known classics and some surprises. The composers of those scores have something in common: a fascinating life and a solid career. Let’s enjoy the ride through the process the composers followed while creating those historical pieces that convey what the movie is trying to say without words and evoke an emotional response even the most brilliant bit of dialogue cannot. Some of these scores have even outlived the film they soundtracked.

Members who love Broadway musical comedies and wonder how they are put together should join this course!  The course will view and explain clips of opening numbers, main character’s signature songs, blockbusters, supporting character songs, and the “ten o’clock” numbers from some famous and not-so-famous shows.

As a follow-up to last year's popular Broadway and the Great American Songbook course (which is not a prerequisite), this course will examine some of the greatest crooners and songstresses in recorded music. Examples include Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Mel Torme, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, and more. Because this is a discussion course, we also can discuss singers who are of particular interest to our participants. In our final class session in November, we will also hear some of their contributions to the holiday music repertoire.

This course will consider films that profit from being viewed within an historical framework. Two of the works will relate to World War I and World War II.  Another will be an example of the genre of “biopic” that purports to portray the life of a famous individual. The last two films will portray the zeitgeists of decades. One will be an American film made in the 1920s (the era of the flapper and Art Deco), and the other will involve a retrospective look at the 1960s. Feature films will be supplemented by excerpts from other relevant works (both documentary and fiction).

This class will focus on musical compositions by great composers exploring the themes of love, drugs, and war. Works by Berlioz, Mahler, Strauss, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Shostakovich, Penderecki, and Gorecki will be covered.

This course will discuss two Shakespearean favorites, Much Ado about Nothing and Romeo and Juliet, one comedy and one tragedy. Members will try to understand these plays in their historical context, just as Shakespeare’s contemporaries might have understood them. In addition to text study, participants will view some works of art that shed light on the plays. The class will also discuss films of the plays: Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing and Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. 

NOTE: Class time will not be used for viewing films. Members will have two options for film viewing: borrowing or purchasing the DVD or viewing on a streaming service.