Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

Classroom "Lineamenti di Storia della Musica" 2022/23

Link di invito per l'accesso / Access invitation link:

https://classroom.google.com/c/NTQyOTAyOTI4NTM3?cjc=y6n52xs

HISTORY OF MUSIC

Opera, Globalisation and Identities

Academic Year: 2022-2023

Degree: B.A. Global Humanities

Credits: 6 cfu (42 hours)

Module convenors: Giuliano Danieli and Simone Caputo

Module description: Opera, Globalisation and Identities aims to offer an introduction to the history of opera and to the field of opera studies. Over the first three weeks, students will be provided with the basic analytical tools for listening to and understanding the functioning of opera. Examples from Mozart, Verdi and Wagner will help explore the interplay of text, music and stage in opera, and define the meaning of “musical dramaturgy”. The reminder of the course will focus on several case studies that illustrate how opera can serve as a useful entry point for discussing issues of gender, exclusion, nationalism and internationalism, (internal) orientalism and exoticism, globalisation, physical and social mobility, remediation. Students will familiarise with a variety of different research methods, interpretative approaches and recent scholarly debates, as well as with a number of popular and lesser-known operas, from George Frideric Handel’s Rinaldo to Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes.

Part 1 (Weeks 1-4) What is Opera? What is Musical Dramaturgy? (Mozart, Don Giovanni; Verdi, La Traviata; Wagner, Das Rheingold) / Tour of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma + Production Workshops (Via dei Cerchi) / Attending an operatic performance: dress rehearsal of Il tabarro by Giacomo Puccini and Il castello del Principe Barbablù by Béla Bartók.

Part 2 (week 5) Opera and Gender throughout the history of opera

Part 3 (week 6) Opera and Exclusion (Britten, Peter Grimes)

Part 4 (week 7) Opera and Mobility (Handel, Rinaldo)

Part 5 (week 8) Opera and Nationalism (Musorgsky, Boris Godunov)

Part 6 (week 9) Opera and Orientalism (Puccini, Madama Butterfly)

Part 7 (week 10) Opera on the Global Screen (Bizet, Carmen)

Classes: The course will begin on Monday 27 March. Classes will be held on Monday 1–3 pm (Room: Aula VI CU003) and Friday 5–7 pm (Aula II CU003). Due to the problems and delays faced by many international students because of war-related issues, the Sapienza Governance has recently ruled that, exceptionally and only for those students, classes will also be held online. Please email giuliano.danieli@uniroma1.it to get the link to the virtual room.

Prerequisites: None

Module delivery: In person (online in exceptional circumstances)

Attendance: Attendance at all lectures (and extra activities, e.g., guided tour of the Opera House) is strongly recommended. In some cases, you will be assigned a specific reading to prepare, or a task to complete before the class. Although these tasks are not usually assessed in themselves, they form an essential part of your preparation for the final examination and are vital for your learning. Students who cannot attend the classes (neither in person nor remotely) should contact me by email: giuliano.danieli@uniroma1.it

Classroom link: https://classroom.google.com/c/NjAwNjk3NDc2MTI4?cjc=nudpq64

Exam: Written 2-hour exam (4 questions) – For detailed information about the exam, see the Classroom announcements in May.

Communication with the lecturers: We will use Google Classroom to inform students of last-minute changes to the weekly module arrangements, as well as to distribute important information and make other announcements. It is essential to have a working Sapienza (@uniroma1.it) email, to join our class on Google Classroom and check it frequently. You are welcome to email giuliano.danieli@uniroma1.it with your questions. Lecturers will also be available immediately after class, or by appointment.

Bibliography and filmography

(available on Drive, link on Classroom: https://classroom.google.com/c/NjAwNjk3NDc2MTI4?cjc=nudpq64 )

Lecture notes

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General readings:

00. Howard Mayer Brown, Ellen Rosand et al., ‘Opera’, Grove Music Online.

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Required readings:

01. Tim Carter, ‘What is Opera?’, in The Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 15-32.

02. Tim Carter, Understanding Italian Opera (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 1-25.

03. Laurel E. Zeiss, ‘The dramaturgy of opera’, in The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 248-279.

04. Heather Hadlock, ‘Opera and gender studies’, in The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies, edited by Nicholas Till (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 352-378.

05. Joseph Kerman, ‘Verdi and the Undoing of Women’, Cambridge Opera Journal, 18/1, 2006, pp. 21–31.

06. Alexandra Wilson, ‘Puccini and Women’, in Calibano: l’opera e il mondo, 1, 2023.

07. Benjamin Britten, ‘Introduction’; Peter Pears, ‘Neither a Hero Nor a Villain’, in Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes, edited by Philip Brett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 148-152.

08. Philip Brett, ‘"Grimes Is at His Exercise": Sex, Politics, and Violence in the Librettos of Peter Grimes’, in Siren Songs. Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera, edited by Mary Ann Smart (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 237-250.

09. Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise (New York: Picador, 2007), chapter on Peter Grimes, pp. 317-328 (ebook version).

10. Louise K. Stein, ‘How Opera Traveled’, in The Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 843-862.

11. Winton Dean, Handel’s Operas. 1704-1726 (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1995), pp. 168-205.

12. Giovanni Andrea Sechi, ‘The Neapolitan Version of Rinaldo: The Stages of its Rediscovery’, from the CD booklet of Rinaldo, music by Handel and Leo, Dynamic CDS7831.03, pp. 18-25.

13. Marina Frolova-Walker, ‘The Language of National Style’, in The Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 156-176.

14. Richard Taruskin, ‘Musorgsky versus Musorgsky: The Versions of Boris Godunov’, in Musorgsky. Eight Essays and an Epilogue (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 201-299.

15. Nicholas Till, ‘‘An exotic and irrational entertainment’: opera and our others; opera as other’, in The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies, edited by Nicholas Till (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 409-446.

16. W. Anthony Sheppard, ‘Exoticism’, in Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 795–816.

17. Ping-hui Liao, ‘“Of Writing Words for Music Which Is Already Made”: Madama Butterfly, Turandot, an Orientalism’, Cultural Critique, 16 (1990), pp 31-59.

18. Susan McClary, Bizet: Carmen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 29-61.

19. Naomi André, Black Opera. History, Power, Engagement (Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2018), Chapter 5: ‘Carmen: From Nineteenth-Century France to Settings in the United States and South Africa in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries’, pp. 142-195.

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Students who cannot attend the classes (neither in person nor remotely) should contact me by email to receive additional materials: giuliano.danieli@uniroma1.it

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Filmography (all these operas should be watched attentively in preparation for the exam):

VERDI, La traviata, 1853 (dir. Carsen – Teatro la Fenice, 2004)

BRITTEN, Peter Grimes, 1945 (dir. Jones – Teatro alla Scala, 2012)

HANDEL, Rinaldo, 1711 (dir. Carsen – Glyndebourne Festival, 2011)

MUSORGSKY, Boris Godunov, 1869 (dir. Bieito – Bayerische Staatsoper 2016)

PUCCINI, Madama Butterfly, 1904 (dir. Leiser, Caurier – Royal Opera House 2017)

BIZET, Carmen, 1875 (dir. Bieito – Wiener Staatsoper 2021)

***

Syllabus

Part 1 (weeks 1-4): Musical Dramaturgy

Topics: Introduction to the course: what is opera, and why does it matter? What is opera today, and what was opera in the past? A very short history and geography. How does opera work? Words, music, performance, reception and space. Introduction to musical dramaturgy, with a few, significant examples from:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Don Giovanni (1787) [excerpts from Peter Brook’s production, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, 2002]

• Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata (1853) [excerpts from Robert Carsen’s production, Teatro la Fenice, Venice, 2004]

• Richard Wagner, Das Rheingold (1851-4) [excerpts from Harry Kupfer’s production, Bayreuth Festival,

Readings:

Howard Mayer Brown, Ellen Rosand et al., ‘Opera’, Grove Music Online.

Tim Carter, ‘What is Opera?’, in The Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 15-32.

Tim Carter, Understanding Italian Opera (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 1-25.

Laurel E. Zeiss, ‘The dramaturgy of opera’, in The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 248-279.

Further readings:

Librettos of Don Giovanni and La traviata

Excerpts from the operas:[1]

Mozart, Don Giovanni. Act 1, Scene 5, Recitativo and Leporello’s Aria: ‘Madamina, il catalogo è questo’ (22:00-30:35)

Mozart, Don Giovanni. Act 1, no. 7, Duet Don Giovanni-Zerlina: ‘Là ci darem la mano’ (38:14-40:57)

Verdi, La traviata. No. 1, orchestral prelude[2]

Verdi, La traviata. Act 1, no. 2, ‘Introduzione’

Verdi, La traviata. Act 1, no. 3, ‘Aria di Violetta’

Verdi, La traviata. Act 2, no. 6, ‘Scena’ (Violetta: ‘Amami Alfredo’)

Verdi, La traviata. Act 3

Wagner, Das Rheingold. Scene 1 (Bottom of the Rhine)

Wagner, Das Rheingold. Instrumental transition between Scenes 2 and 3

In weeks 1-4 activities at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma will be organised (attendance is strongly recommended): students will attend an operatic performance (Double Bill: Giacomo Puccini’s Il tabarro; Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle) and will take a guided tour of the Opera House and its Production Workshop.

Part 2 (week 5): Opera and Gender

Readings:

Heather Hadlock, ‘Opera and Gender Studies’, in The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies, edited by Nicholas Till (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 352-378.

Joseph Kerman, ‘Verdi and the Undoing of Women’, Cambridge Opera Journal, 18/1, 2006, pp. 21–31.

Alexandra Wilson, ‘Puccini and Women’, in Calibano: l’opera e il mondo, 1, 2023.

Excerpts from the operas:

Mozart’s The magic flute

Verdi’s La Traviata

Strauss’ Salome

Part 3 (week 6): Opera and Exclusion

• Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes (1945) [excerpts from Richard Jones’ production, Teatro alla Scala, 2012]

Readings:

Benjamin Britten, ‘Introduction’; Peter Pears, ‘Neither a Hero Nor a Villain’, in Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes, edited by Philip Brett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 148-152.

Philip Brett, ‘"Grimes Is at His Exercise": Sex, Politics, and Violence in the Librettos of Peter Grimes’, in Siren Songs. Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera, edited by Mary Ann Smart (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 237-250.

Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise (New York: Picador, 2007), chapter on Peter Grimes, pp. 317-328.

Further readings:

Libretto of Peter Grimes

Excerpts from the opera:

Britten, Peter Grimes. Prelude: The Trial (3.00-10.00)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Prelude: Duet Peter-Ellen (10.20-12.33)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Interlude 1: ‘Dawn’ + Act 1, Scene 1: The Borough’s choral hymn (12.33-22.00)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Act 1, Scene 1: Ellen’s Aria, ‘Let her among you without fault’ (25.57-28.20)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Act 1, Scene 1: Peter’s monologue, ‘They listen to money’ (35.46-38.29)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Interlude 2: ‘The Storm’ (38.30-43.00)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Act 1, Scene 2: Peter’s Aria, ‘Now the great Bear and Pleiades’ (50’32-54’10)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Act 1, Scene 2, ‘Old Joe has gone fishing’ (55.01-57.23)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Act 2, Scene 1: Ellen and Peter’s quarrel + choir: ‘Grimes is at his exercise’ (1.09.11-1.20.13)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Interlude 4: ‘Passacaglia’ (1.30.13-1.35.19)

Britten, Peter Grimes. Interlude 6 + Act 3, Scene 2 (02.10.00-02.25.58)

Part 4 (week 7): Opera and Mobility

• George Frideric Handel, Rinaldo (London, 1711) [excerpts from Robert Carsen’s production, Glyndebourne Festival, 2011].

• George Frideric Handel, Leonardo Leo et al., Rinaldo (Naples, 1718) [excerpts from Giorgio Sangati’s production, Festival della Valle d’Itria, Martina Franca, 2018].

Readings:

Louise K. Stein, ‘How Opera Traveled’, in The Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 843-862.

Winton Dean, Handel’s Operas. 1704-1726 (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1995), pp. 168-205.

Giovanni Andrea Sechi, ‘The Neapolitan Version of Rinaldo: The Stages of its Rediscovery’, from the CD booklet of Rinaldo, music by Handel and Leo, Dynamic CDS7831.03, pp. 18-25.

Further readings:

Libretto of Rinaldo (London 1711)

Libretto of Rinaldo (Naples 1718)

Excerpts from the opera:

Handel, Rinaldo (London 1711). Act 1, Scene 9, Rinaldo: ‘ Venti, turbini, prestate’ (1.06.00-1.09.55)

Handel, Rinaldo (London 1711). Act 2, Scene 3, Goffredo: ‘Mio cor, che mi sai dir’ (1.22.28-1.25.17)

Handel, Rinaldo (London 1711). Act 2, Scene 3, Sirens: ‘Il vostro Maggio’ (1.16.50-1.19.00)

Handel, Rinaldo (London 1711). Act 2, Scene 4: Almirena, ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ (1.27.47-1.31.54)

Handel, Rinaldo (London 1711). Act 3, Scene 11: Battle (2.32.57-2.35.55)

Handel-Leo, Rinaldo (Naples 1718). Act 1, Scene 8, Rinaldo: ‘Mio cor, che mi sai dir’

Handel-Leo, Rinaldo (Naples 1718). Act 2, Scene 6, Argante: ‘Nave son, che fra due venti’

Handel-Leo, Rinaldo (Naples 1718). Act 3, Scene 7, Rinaldo: ‘Lascia ch’io resti’

Part 5 (week 8): Opera and Nationalism

• Modest Musorgsky, Boris Godunov (1869-72) [1869 version: excerpts from Calixto Bieito’s production, Bayerische Staatsoper, 2016; 1872 version: excerpts from Herbert Wernicke’s production, Salzburg Festival, 1998].

• Modest Musorgsky, The Marriage (1868, unfinished) [excerpts from the 1984 documentary].

Readings:

Marina Frolova-Walker, ‘The Language of National Style’, in The Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 156-176.

Richard Taruskin, ‘Musorgsky versus Musorgsky: The Versions of Boris Godunov’, in Musorgsky. Eight Essays and an Epilogue (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 201-299.

Further readings:

Libretto of Boris Godunov

Excerpts from the opera:

Musorgsky, The Marriage. Scene 1, Podkolyosin and Stephan

Musorgsky, Boris Godunov, 1869 version. Scene 1: Introduction and Choir of the Pilgrims (02.09–18.35)

Musorgsky, Boris Godunov, 1869 version. Scene 2: Coronation scene, Boris’ monologue and Slava! (18.35-27.00)

Musorgsky, Boris Godunov, 1869 version. Scene 4: The Inn at the Lithuanian border (47.42-1.03.12)

Musorgsky, Boris Godunov, 1869 version. Scene 5: Boris’ vision (1.26.50-1.29.48)

Musorgsky, Boris Godunov, 1872 version. Act 2, Scene 5: Boris’ vision

Musorgsky, Boris Godunov, 1872 version. Scene 6: The Fool and Boris (1.39.22-1.42.30)

Musorgsky, Boris Godunov, 1872 version. Act 4, Finale: The Fool predicts the grim destiny of Russia

Part 6 (week 9): Opera and Orientalism

• Giacomo Puccini, Madama Butterfly (1904) [excerpts from Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s production, Royal Opera House, 2017].

Readings:

Nicholas Till, ‘‘An exotic and irrational entertainment’: opera and our others; opera as other’, in The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies, edited by Nicholas Till (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 409-446.

W. Anthony Sheppard, ‘Exoticism’, in Oxford Handbook of Opera, edited by Helen M. Greenwald (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 795–816.

Ping-hui Liao, ‘“Of Writing Words for Music Which Is Already Made”: Madama Butterfly, Turandot, an Orientalism’, Cultural Critique, 16 (1990), pp. 31-59.

Further readings:

Libretto of Madama Butterfly

Excerpts from the opera:

Puccini, Madama Butterfly. Act 1, Ouverture and Scene 1 (01.00-07.25)

Puccini, Madama Butterfly. Act 1, Pinkerton: ‘Dovunque al mondo’ (07.25-10.35)

Puccini, Madama Butterfly. Act 1, Scenes 2-3, Cio-Cio-San’s entrance (14.32-22.16)

Puccini, Madama Butterfly. Act 2, Scene 1, Cio-Cio-San: ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ (57.54-1.02.04)

Puccini, Madama Butterfly. Act 2, Scene 6, Humming Choir (1.36.10-1.39.10)

Puccini, Madama Butterfly. Act 3, Double Finale (2.04.20-2.11.50)

Part 7 (weeks 10): Opera on the Global Screen

• Georges Bizet, Carmen (1875) [excerpts from Calixto Bieito’s production, Wiener Staatsoper, 2021].

• Excerpts from cinematic adaptations:

Carmen Jones, dir. Otto Preminger (USA, 1954)

U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, dir. Mark Dornford-May (2005, SA).

Readings:

Susan McClary, Bizet: Carmen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 29-61.

Naomi André, Black Opera. History, Power, Engagement (Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2018), Ch. 5: ‘Carmen: From Nineteenth-Century France to Settings in the United States and South Africa in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries’, pp. 142-195.

Further readings:

Libretto of Carmen

Excerpts from the opera:

Bizet, Carmen. Act 1, Carmen’s ‘Habanera’ (29.46-38.09)

Bizet, Carmen. Act 1, Duet Don José-Michaela (38.10-48.37)

Bizet, Carmen. Act 1, Carmen’s ‘Seguidilla’ (54.30-59.15)

Bizet, Carmen. Act 2, Bohemian song (1.04.00-1.10.30)

Bizet, Carmen. Act 2, Carmen’s dance (1.23.08-1.25.59)

Excerpts from the films:

Preminger, Carmen Jones. Carmen’s ‘Habanera’

Preminger, Carmen Jones. Lillas Pastia’s scene

Dornford-May, U-Carmen. Introduction and orchestral prelude (00.22-07.44)

Dornford-May, U-Carmen. Carmen’s ‘Habanera’ (19.38-27.58)

Dornford-May, U-Carmen. Bohemian Song (52.07-1.01.15)

Dornford-May, U-Carmen. Entr’Acte, ‘Corrida’ (1.44.25-1.48.50)

Dornford-May, U-Carmen. Finale (1.48.50-1.58.50)