News: Lecture On Mozart's "secret Codes" By Dr. Kay Lipton: Forum, Oct. 14

Dr. Kay Lipton, first winner of the PCC Trustees Lecture/Performance award, will give a free talk on campus Oct. 14 about pro-social messages that Mozart embedded with musical codes in his famous comic opera "Don Giovanni."

Mozart’s Secret Messages in “Don Giovanni” to be Analyzed by Dr. Kay Lipton in Lecture at PCC, Oct. 14

Pasadena City College music professor will also lead PCC’s first
Study Abroad session about opera in a European tour during July 2004

Mozart’s famous comic opera “Don Giovanni” contains musical codes about the rising importance of the middle class in 18th century Europe, according to PCC music professor Dr. Kay Lipton. Mozart’s message made for a provocative social statement in its time, signaling in effect “the times they are a changin.”

Lipton will explain this lively theme in a free lecture at Pasadena City College, October 14, entitled “Secret Codes Revealed: Class Distinction in Mozart’s Comic Opera ‘Don Giovanni.’ ” The free lecture will be noon to 1 p.m. in the Vosloh Forum on the east side of campus.

Lipton is the first winner of the PCC Board of Trustees Lecture / Performance Award for PCC faculty. Her award was announced in May and includes a $1,500 stipend for the lecture. Dr. Lipton was selected based on strong recommendations from her students according to Alan Lamson, chair of the selection committee and president of the Academic Senate.

“This award recognizes an outstanding teacher at PCC,” said PCC trustee Dr. Jeanette Mann, who served on the committee and suggested the award. “This award also supports a lecture that will be a model of creative pedagogy for the campus and the community.”

As a specialist in opera, Lipton’s lectures for students draw heavily upon her lifelong study of opera. Lipton has a Ph.D. in music from UCLA and has investigated extensively the contexts in which music operates, past and present.

“Mozart was writing opera at the end of the Age of Enlightenment, when the middle class was emerging strongly,” Dr. Lipton said. “He saw that they were the ones who were really going to be in charge. In fact, he magnifies the role of the middle class in his three operas, ‘Le nozze di Figaro,’ ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘Così fan tutte.’ Previously middle class characters did not have leading roles and equal numbers of arias as did the opera seria or high-style characters. This change was Mozart’s way of letting everybody know about the change in society,” Lipton said.

Not incidentally, Lipton’s dissertation on 18th century opera showed that Mozart and his contemporary composers were often at the mercy of famous singers, any one of whom might demand that a favorite composer rewrite portions of another composer’s work to suit the singer’s vanity and capabilities.

Lipton’s music lecture will be Oct. 14, noon to 1 p.m. in the Vosloh Forum on the east side of the PCC campus. Parking is $1 in any student lot.

NOTE: Lipton the opera expert is now taking her show on the road – to Vienna and beyond – in summer of 2004. The new PCC Study Abroad program will visit the romantic capital of Europe July 11 to August 8, with side excursions to Prague, Munich and Salzburg. Information about the tour: (626) 585-7203.

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Release Date: 09/30/2003
Contact: Chuck Champlin , Director, Public Relations
Phone: (626) 585-7315
Email: cdchamplin@pasadena.edu