Dr. Lisa Scoggin will present “Fathers, Sons, and Righteous Disobedience in the Music of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” as part of the Richard Murphy Musicology Colloquium Series in Bibbins Hall 224.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio transports the familiar story to Italy under Mussolini’s reign. Almost all of the characters within are some form of puppet – to the church, capitalists, or the fascist government – except, according to del Toro, Pinocchio. And while Pinocchio’s character does learn, much of the growth comes from other characters, especially Geppetto. This presentation considers how del Toro incorporates two of his favorite themes, the father/son relationship and righteous disobedience in the face of fascism, into the story of Pinocchio, and how Alexandre Desplat’s songs and score work to support those ideas.
About Lisa Scoggin
Lisa Scoggin completed her Ph.D. in Musicology at Boston University and received degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Though her primary musicological interest is in music in animation, she also enjoys examining music in film, television, and video games as well as twentieth-century art music in the United States and Britain.
About the Colloquium Series
The Richard Murphy Musicology Colloquium was begun in 1992 by Professor Claudia Macdonald to foster an exchange of ideas on music between colleagues in both the Conservatory and the College. The series was expanded in 1997 to include outside speakers as well, and named in honor of Richard Murphy, who taught music history at Oberlin from 1946 to 1978, and was much revered and beloved by his students. He died in 1993.
