Declarations of Love in Music and Image (Gallery Course)

Date: Saturday, May 3, 2008
Time: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Museum Lecture Hall and Museum galleries
Admission: $60; students/seniors $30. Open to 140 participants.

Though separated by time and media, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) and Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) each struggled to represent the nature of love in their artistic production. In previous years, Puccini's opera La Rondine, like Fragonard's late allegorical paintings, has been derided and dismissed as overly sentimental. These masterpieces are now experiencing an enthusiastic critical reappraisal: Fragonard's late work through the exhibition Consuming Passion: Fragonard's Allegories of Love (at the Getty Center through May 4), and La Rondine through LA Opera's new production directed by Marta Domingo.

This full-day seminar brings scholars of art and music together to explore the challenges faced by each artist in representing love. The program includes:

• a live performance of selections from La Rondine by members of the LA Opera;
• a guided tour through the exhibition of Fragonard's paintings and drawings; and
• lectures on the artistic representation of love as seen by a musicologist, a historian of opera, and an art historian.

How to Get Here
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. See Hours, Directions, Parking for maps and driving directions.