Lotta Dames, No Horses: The Life, Death, and Legacy of John Latouche

Description

Join us on a captivating journey through history as we explore the profound connections between art, innovation, and the human imagination. Delve into the fascinating intersection of artistic expression and community dynamics, from the medieval world to the present day. Discover how art has shaped our collective identity and inspired generations to push the boundaries of creativity. Don’t miss this enriching series that celebrates the power of imagination to transform the world around us. 

Lotta Dames, No Horses: The Life, Death, and Legacy of John Latouche Presented by: Caleb McMurphy, Director of Education and Visitor Services, Hammond Castle Museum

On July 7th 1956, the librettist John Treville Latouche’s seminal American Opera The Ballad of Baby Doe premiered in Central City, Colorado. “It’s about love and It’s about money,” Latouche had joked, in predicting the public’s response to the Opera, “And there’s no combination an American audience likes more!” Today, The Ballad of Baby Doe is often cited as one of the most significant Operas in the American canon, but Latouche would never know just how right he had been. One month later, John Latouche was dead. He was 41. Over the course of his short years, Latouche lived a remarkably dynamic life; like a brilliant star, he pulled some of the most important artistic figures of 20th-century American culture into his brief orbit. The story of the community which Latouche anchored is one that features well-known characters such as composer Leonard Bernstein and artist Marcel Duchamp and local figures like Margarett McKean and Hammond Castle Museum’s own John Hays Hammond Jr.. In fact, through Latouche’s legacy, a curious assembly of artists, poets, and occultists, many of them Queer, came to assemble at Hammond Castle Museum in its founder’s final years. This is a story about the life of John Latouche, but it is also a story about love. About money. About art. About magick. About false accusations of murder, and more. This lecture, the final in Hammond Castle Museum’s May Series on Art & Community Through the Ages, will also serve as an introduction to Hammond Castle Museum’s June Pride Month programming.

This series includes:

Monday, May 6: 140 Years of Television Technology. Presented by: John Leysath, Curatorial Director at Hammond Castle Museum

Monday, May 13: Science and Spirit in Italian Renaissance Painting. Presented by: Rocco Gangle Philosophy Professor, Endicott College

Monday, May 20: Witches and Wards: Magic and Counter Magic in 17th Century England and New England. Presented by: Krystina Yeager, Education Manager at Historic Beverly and Historian’s Guide to the Salem Witch Trials