Portraits of an Artist: Mozart, Amadeus, and the Invention of Genius

Featuring a Performance of Amadeus by the PlayMakers Repertory Company
With Support from the Margaret and Robert Boyer Fund

April 11-12, 2008

The Humanities Program is pleased to offer a seminar in conjunction with the PlayMakers Repertory Company’s presentation of Peter Schafer’s Amadeus. Our principal focus will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – as a man, as a composer, and as a genius.

Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play may have seemed scandalous at its time, but it simply added one more layer to an already complex history of a composer who was viewed as “problematic” from the early nineteenth century on. Immediately following his death, Mozart’s widow, Constanze, and her acolytes fed the media: Mozart was the first composer to break away from court patronage, he died a pauper, and he was poisoned by his rival Salieri. None of that is true, but for the Romantics such stories helped to make Mozart a prototypical artist as hero. Our seminar – which will include optional attendance at the PlayMakers performance on Friday, April 11, 2008 – will consider the following questions: What made Mozart a musical genius? How was the world in which he lived and work reflected in his art? What is the larger importance of the conflict between Mozart and Salieri as portrayed on stage?

Topics and Speakers

(Re)-Thinking Mozart
Tim Carter, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor and Chair of Music

A Performance of Amadeus
The PlayMakers Repertory Company

Mozart – A Genius of His Time?
Stanley Chojnacki, Professor of History, Emeritus

Salieri: At War with God
Joseph Haj, Producing Artistic Director, PlayMakers Repertory Company

Making and Re-Making Mozart
Professors Carter and Chojnacki, Mr. Haj, and Members of the PlayMakers Repertory Company

Time and Cost

4:30 p.m., Friday, April 11, through 1:00 p.m., Saturday, April 12, 2008. The tuition is $120 ($105 by January 24). The optional dinner on Friday evening is $20. The optional play ticket on Friday evening is $22.50. Tuition for teachers is $60 ($52.50 by January 24). 10 contact hours for 1 hour of renewal credit.

Special Note to Teachers: Thanks to the generosity of the PlayMakers Repertory Company, complementary tickets to the performance of Amadeus in association with this seminar on Friday, April 11, 2008, are available on a first-come, first-served basis. You must be a currently-employed, full-time public or private school K-12 teacher or community college instructor. Please see the registration information. PlayMakers Repertory Company is committed to the integration of the arts in education, and to offering educators resources to make theater a part of a diverse and creative curriculum. For more information, please visit www.playmakersrep.org or call 919/962-2491.

For information about lodging click here.

Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association.
For information about GAA discounts and other scholarships available to Humanities Program participants, click here.

Register for this seminar.