Detail of ceiling painting by Marc Chagall depicting scenes from the operas of 14 composers, the Palais Garnier, 1964 (Photo: Joe deSousa 2017/CC0 1.0)
Music and the visual arts have always walked hand in hand. For millennia, artists have obsessed about how to represent music’s invisible beauty, just as composers have sought to render art’s vibrant colors in pure sound.
Popular speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin leads a fascinating exploration into the intimate relationship between the visible and invisible arts and how music can literally bind the arts together.
June 10 Chagall at the Opera: A Listener’s Guide
Marc Chagall said “I wanted to represent, as in a mirror, a bunch of dreams, the creations of the actors and musicians; to keep in mind the colorful clothes of the audience stirring on the lower level. To sing like a bird, free of any theory and method. To render homage to the great composers of operas and ballets.” From the Paris Opéra Garnier to New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Chagall created utterly unique murals, sets, and costumes for opera houses and theaters worldwide that changed theatrical design forever. Franklin surveys the many composers he glorified and discusses how they inspired him.
June 17 Symbols and Allegories: Art’s Hidden Musical Codes
Humans have been playing music for more than 40,000 years and images of us with our instruments abound from Neolithic times onwards. From intimate family portraits to massive historical, religious, and allegorical artworks, music and musicians are embedded throughout the history of art. Many of these works contain secret codes that contemporary viewers would have understood. Franklin interprets glorious paintings by artists such as Lippi, Vermeer, and Hogarth and offers music that would have been performed at the time.
June 24 The Sharps: Family Harmony
Meet the Sharps. Behind Johan Joseph Zoffany’s joyful late-18th-century portrait of a musical party on the Thames that depicts the family of Granville Sharp playing together lies a powerful celebration of social harmony and a true commitment to justice. Franklin explores this fascinating intersection of art, music, and history to find that the entertaining Sharps have a harmonious message for today: love music, give back, and always wear big hats.
July 1 The Artist as Musician, the Composer as Model
Many great artists were also musicians. Ingres, Delacroix, Klee, and Matisse, all were passionate instrumentalists. How did their deep friendships with composers and constant musical immersion shape their art? Franklin delves into the meaning behind some famous portraits of Chopin and Paganini and considers how Matisse and Klee expressed the essential presence of music in their own lives.
British-born Franklin has been a featured speaker for organizations including the Library of Congress and NPR, exploring intersections among classical and jazz music, film scores, and the fine arts.
4 sessions
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