Dvorak Archives : Professor Carol

Friday Performance Pick – 98

July 2, 2018October 14, 2016 by Professor Carol

Offenbach, Barcarole from The Tales of Hoffmann Operas are full of hit tunes—at least, that’s the hope of the creators, directors, and financial backers. If you consider how people today enjoy the songs from Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, and musicals like Guys and Dolls, … Read more

Songs My Mother Taught Me

January 10, 2022May 12, 2012 by Professor Carol

I first heard the song 32 years ago, sung by a beguiling Slovakian soprano (well past her prime) who stared at me incredulously: “You do not know Dvorak’s bea-uuuu-ti-ful “Songs my Mother Taught Me? Wvat is de matter with you?” With lightning speed, she plopped … Read more

And Then There's This . . .

Vince Bielski, When Classical Learning Meets Public Education the Dialogue Isn’t Always Socratic. “Classical education, whose name gained traction in the 1980s to evoke the movement’s focus on liberal arts and the Western canon, is struggling to overcome local political opposition.”

Peter Wood, After College: The Coming Cultural Collapse of Higher Education. “Students graduate with a veneer of knowledge rather than a core. An increasingly obsolescent institution has wedded itself to an increasingly noisome cultural stance.”

Anthony Esolen, Heap Songs Upon Their Heads. “We are the most beauty-starved people, I am persuaded, who have ever trod the earth.”

Gregory Wolfe, The Wound of Beauty. “The time has come to bring beauty back, to give it the glass slipper and invite it to the prom.”