The Center for the Core Curriculum will present a lecture on “Mozart’s Don Giovanni and the Literary Imagination” at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 18, at Miller Theater. Professor Elaine Sisman, Chair of Music Humanities, will discuss the literary tradition of the Don Juan story and its reinvention by Mozart to become an opera of unsettling moral ambiguity. The lecture, which is intended to connect the various Core courses, is geared towards students in Contemporary Civilization, Literature Humanities and Music Humanities courses, but is also open to the greater Columbia College community.   

The lecture will give students the opportunity to think about Lit Hum topics in the context of Music Hum, including reinventing stories, gender and power, and how individual desires conflict with social responsibility. Questions addressed will include: What are the ethical and political implications of Mozart’s opera? Does the opera condemn the Don for rape, murder, and blasphemy or celebrate his freedom and sensuous life force? Of what is he guilty? For which crimes is he sent to hell? How vicious and guilty are his female characters? In the end, what are we told about human freedom, desire, virtue, and responsibility?

When Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte took up the story of trickster and seducer Don Juan, it was already featured in numerous plays and operas. But Mozart and Da Ponte turned a story of moral clarity into one of unsettling ambiguity. By the end of the opera, the audience questions the motives and actions of every female character—the two women the Don pursues onstage and the revenge-seeking woman he abandoned—as well as the supposedly irresistible Don Giovanni himself. Don Giovanni will be performed at the Metropolitan Opera this winter. 

To register for the lecture, click here. For additional information, call the Center for the Core Curriculum at 212-854-2453. 

The Center for Career Education and the Columbia College Alumni Association Career Education Committee are inviting Columbia College students to a dinner and discussion on the film and television industries with professional actors, writers, and producers. The dinner will take place on Nov. 28 at the Alumni Center on 113th Street and Broadway. Attendees will include Dan Futterman, CC ’89, Anya Epstein, and Jason Kim, CC ‘08. Students must apply in advance for a spot. 

Futterman, an actor and screenwriter, has appeared on Broadway in Angels in America, and Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center and Manhattan Theatre Club in The Lights, A Fair Country, Dealer's Choice. His films include A Mighty Heart, The Birdcage, and Urbania, and he was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award for his screenplay for the film Capote. He and his wife and writing partner, Anya Epstein, were showrunners for the third season of the HBO series In Treatment, and are developing a new series for HBO called T. Futterman is also working with director, Bennett Miller on a forthcoming film, Foxcatcher.

Epstein, a television writer and producer, began her career on NBC's Homicide - Life on the Street. Besides In Treatment, her credits include ABC's Commander-in-Chief and HBO's Tell Me You Love Me.  

Jason Kim has worked at The New Yorker, HBO, Focus Features, and Indian Paintbrush. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at the New School for Drama where he studies with Christopher Shinn, Michael Weller, and Jon Robin Baitz. He is the recipient of the Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film and the Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

The dinner is open only to Columbia College students, and space is extremely limited. Students must apply for the dinner via Sundial, and will be placed on a waiting list until they have been approved. For more information, contact Elizabeth King at ek2471@columbia.edu or 212-851-0276.

The Center for Career Education is holding three workshops to help students secure a summer internship on Friday afternoon. The workshops, entitled “Get the Internship: On Campus Recruiting Program,” “Get the Internship: How to Fund an Unpaid Internship,” and “Get the Internship: Develop an Effective Plan,” will take place in Room 501 of the Northwest Corner Building on 120th and Broadway.  Students can register on the Center for Career Education website for the specific session or sessions they would like to attend.  

The sessions include:

Get the Internship: On Campus Recruiting Program (12-12:30 p.m.) 

Part I:  Learn how to navigate LionSHARE and the On-Campus Recruiting process in your internship search.

Part II:  Hear from industry experts about the ins and outs of the finance and consulting industries and learn how to best prepare to get an internship.

• Finance Industry 101 – Presented by Blackrock
• Consulting Industry 101 – Presented by Brad Aspel, Columbia Business School '06, former consultant at McKinsey & Company and Alaattin Ozbas, SEAS '08, GEP Consulting

Get the Internship: How to Fund an Unpaid Internship (2:30-3:15 p.m.)

Learn about CCE summer funding programs, internship opportunities, and strategies to fund an unpaid internship. Begin planning early so you will be prepared for upcoming funding program deadlines.  Programs discussed will include the Alumni & Parent Internship Fund and the Work Exemption Program, along with Columbia Experience Overseas program, the CU Internship Network, and the Science Technology Engineering Program. The Fellowships office will also present resources and creative strategies to fund internships, fellowships and other academic and professional pursuits.

Get the Internship: Develop an Effective Plan (3:15-4:45 p.m.)

This workshop will help students identify career resources and recruiting timelines for a range of fields, including arts, media, law, government, nonprofit, engineering, education, and healthcare, and develop a plan to secure an internship in their target industry.

The event is sponsored by the Center for Career Education in partership with the Columbia College Student Council, the Engineering Student Council, and the General Studies Student Council.

The Center for the Core Curriculum will present Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis for students in the first-year Literature Humanities course at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, at Miller Theater. The play will be performed by the Acting Class of the Theatre Department of the School of the Arts. Members of the Columbia College community are welcome to attend. 

Iphigenia at Aulis is the last existent play of the playwright Euripides. It was written between 408 and 406 BC, the year of Euripides’ death. It was first produced in 405 BC by the playwright’s son, Euripedes the Younger. The play revolves around the Greek leader Agamemnon and his decision to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods and ensure the good fortune of his forces in the Trojan War.

Literature Humanities: Masterpieces of Western Literature and Philosophy has been part of the Columbia College Core Curriculum for decades. Each fall, students read several ancient Greek works. This year’s syllabus includes The Illiad, Aeschylus’ Orestia, Sophocles’ Oedipus, and Euripdes’ Medea.

The Theatre Department of the School of the Arts has performed plays for Literature Humanities students each year for several years. Last year, students performed Euripedes’ Medea.

The performance is geared towards Literature Humanities students, but all members of the Columbia College community are welcome. After the play, Director Kristin Linklater, Barnard Classics Professor Helene Foley, and Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berne Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Chair of Literature Humanities, will discuss the play and take questions.

For more information or to RSVP, click here or email core-curriculum@columbia.edu.