DAHA presents musicologist Michael Beckerman in a Czech Center Gallery talk exploring Rusalka’s deeper meanings. Characterized as a "fairy-tale" opera, Dvořák’s Rusalka is indeed at least in part based on the "Little Mermaid" story. But the opera, both in its use of recurring motives and in its psychological depth aspires to the dramatic power of Wagner's Tristan rather than the picturesque and contained world of Hans Christian Andersen. Themes of longing, wish for death, and search for a kind of ultimate love pervade the opera and the final scene rises to the highest level of tragedy.
Free admission; for reservations and further information click here.
Starting February 1st, we will be offering Guided Tours of the Czech Center exhibition Rusalka & The Dvořák Room. Click here for details!
Michael Beckerman is Carroll and Milton Petrie Chair and Collegiate Professor of Music at New York University and The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic for the 2016-17 season. He has written many studies and several books on Czech music topics, including New Worlds of Dvořák (W.W. Norton, 2003), Dvořák and His World (Princeton University Press, 1993), Janáček and His World (Princeton, 2004), Janáček as Theorist (Pendragon Press, 1994), and Martinů’s Mysterious Accident (Pendragon, 2007), as well as articles on subjects such as Mozart, Brahms, film scoring, music of the Roma (Gypsies), exiled composers, and music in the camps. He has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times and was a regular guest on Live From Lincoln Center and other radio and television programs in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Dr. Beckerman lectures nationally and internationally and has organized many concerts and symposia. He is a recipient of the Dvořák Medal and the Janáček Medal by the Czech Ministry of Culture, and is also a Laureate of the Czech Music Council; he has twice received the Deems Taylor Award. Chair of the New York University Department of Music from 2004–13, he served as distinguished professor at Lancaster University from 2011–15, and last year received an honorary doctorate from Palacký University in the Czech Republic.