Music/German Studies 374 Opera and Culture
This course explores relationships between opera and cultural practice, using examples from the German and Italian repertories. Lectures / discussions will examine operatic representations of major issues in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: constructions of gender and sexuality, politics and national identity, orientalism, madness and/or disease. The enrollment will probably be conducive to a seminar format: I would prefer to conduct the class with a limited amount of lecture presentation, concentrating on group discussions aimed at developing skills in analyzing central passages of text and music and relating them to cultural issues. I will suggest topics/problems to help focus your reading and listening for each opera, and am requesting that you keep a journal of reactions to the material, ideas, questions for class discussion, etc. The journals will not be graded, but I will collect and read them at the end of the semester. Students taking this course as German Studies 374 should write their journals in their respective language.
Please read the libretto of the first act and listen to the music by the first session devoted to each opera (most libretti are in your course reader; recordings and scores are on reserve in the Music Library in Lincoln Hall). Additional reading assignments for each opera provide important background and conceptual tools for dealing with individual operas; the optional recommended readings often presuppose some knowledge of music and will introduce important recent scholarship.
There will be a mid-term and final, as well as four short written assignments of ca. 4-5 pages. I'll be more specific as soon as I have a clearer idea of your backgrounds and abilities, but the first paper will be on the characterization of Don Giovanni as revealed in his only solo aria. Final grades will be determined largely by the papers and exams, but will also reflect participation in discussions (up to 20 %).
Recommended:
Books on Reserve in the Music Library
Allanbrook, Wye. Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart (Chicago, 1983) ML 410 M93 A745
Borchmeyer, Dieter. Richard Wagner: Theory and Theatre (Oxford, 1991) ML 410 W13 B72 1991
Branscombe, Peter. W.A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Cambridge, 19910 MT 100 M93 B82
Budden, Julian. The Operas of Verdi, rev. edn, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1992) ML 410 V48 B92 1992
Dahlhaus, Carl. Richard Wagner's Music Dramas (Cambridge, 1979) ML 410 W13 D131 1979
Foucault, Michel. The Birth of the Clinic (New York, 1994) Olin RC 61 F76 1994
Girardi, Michele, Puccini : His International Art (Chicago, 2000). ML410.P97 G52 2000
Groos, Arthur and Parker, Roger, eds. Reading Opera (Princeton, 1988) ML 2110 R28
John, Nicholas. Violetta and her Sisters (London, 1994) Olin HQ 1121 V79
Levin, David J. Opera Through Other Eyes (Stanford, 1994) ML 1700 O613
Miller, Jonathan, ed. Don Giovanni: Myths of Seduction and Betrayal (New York, 1990) PN 57 D7 D66 1990
Mosse, George. The Nationalization of the Masses (New York, 1975) Olin DD 76 M91 1975
Mozart's Librettos (New York, 1961) ML 49 M93 P11 1961
Nagel, Ivan. Autonomy and Mercy (Cambridge, Mass., 1991) ML 410 M93 N14 1991
Puccini, Simonetta and Weaver, William. The Puccini Companion (New York, 1994) ML 410 P97 P97
Puffett Derrick. Richard Strauss: "Elektra" (Cambridge, 1989) MT 100 S913 R 505
Rushton, Julian. W. A. Mozart: Don Giovanni (Cambridge, 1981). ML 410 M93 R9
Said, Edward. Orientalism (New York, 1978) Uris DS 12 S13
______. "The Empire at Work: Verdi's Aida," in Culture and Imperialism (NewYork, 1993) PN761 .S28x 1993
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Representation (New York, 1966) Uris B 3138 E5 P34 1966
Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor (New York, 1983) Olin PN 56 T82 S69 1983
Subotnik, Rose. Deconstructive Variations (Minneapolis, 1996) ML 3800 S94 D3 1996
Wagner, Richard. The Artwork of the Future (Lincoln, 1993) ML 410 W1 A1271 1993
Warrack, John. Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Cambridge, 1994) ML 410 W16 W28
Piano-Vocal Scores/Recordings on Reserve:
+ M 1503 M93 D6 1976 CD 3403 Mozart, Don Giovanni
+ M 1503 M93 Z3 1985 CD 3761 Mozart, Die Zauberflöte
+ M 1503 P97 B6 1980 CD 398 Puccini, La bohème
++M 1503 S913 E3 CD 5999 Strauss, Elektra
+ M 1503 V48 T7 1980 CD 4144 Verdi, La traviata
+ M 1503 V48 A2 1980 CD 4945 Verdi, Aida
+ M 1503 W13 F6 1925 CD 148 Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer
+ M 1503 W13 M5 1932 CD 2042 Wagner, Die Meistersinger
+ M 1503 W13 T83 CD 4813 Wagner Tristan und Isolde