F2640 Arturo Toscanini and Aida: From Start to Finish
Class | Registration opens Monday, September 14, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Toscanini, once easily the most famous conductor of the first half of the 20th Century, seems to have fallen off the classical radar screen. This class seeks to understand what we’ve lost. With a focus on Verdi’s AIDA, which Toscanini conducted at his famously unscheduled debut and was the last music he conducted in a studio, attendees will see and hear Toscanini’s brilliance.
In-person at the Hawk - Not Recorded
Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy had a 35-year career in the English Department of Oakland University, in Rochester, MI, including a 17-year term as Director of the University’s Honors College. A former film critic, he taught many film courses and helped found the University’s Cinema Concentration. His publications include a novel, The Enigma Variations, and a study of the fiction of C.S. Lewis. As an actor, he has played three Shaw roles, and Dr. Dysart in Equus. The Medicine Show Theater in New York has presented performances of several of Murphy’s plays.