History of Opera (Music 523B)

Spring Semester (2010), Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00-12:15 p.m.

Dr. Rosenblatt, office #222

Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2-4 p.m., or by appointment

Office Phone: 621-1120

E-mail: jrosenbl@u.arizona.edu

Web page: http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/rosenblatt/

Course Description

The purpose of this class is to explore the history of opera, covering the 19th and 20th centuries.  In addition to discussion of various genres and musical forms, the sessions will explore the connection between music and society, including the expectations of contemporary musicians and audiences.

Course Objectives

1. to develop an historical understanding of opera

2. to explore the underlying forms and content that distinguish the genre

3. to understand social expectations and the ways they may have shaped the resulting work

4. to discuss current scholarly research on opera

Class Policies

Assignments:  The course work consists of listening and reading assignments, and the "questions" included in most weeks' assignments will help focus your reading for class preparation and may be the topic of class discussions.  Each student will also be assigned an opera for class presentation (15-20 minutes), to be revised as a paper (8-10 pages) with citations and bibliography (see also the last page of this syllabus).

D2L: All required listening along with a selection of video clips are on the D2L page for this class <http://d2l.arizona.edu/>.  In addition, the reading assignments outside of those in the textbooks can be downloaded as pdf files.

Exams:  There will be a midterm examination covering all listening and reading from the first half of the class and a final examination that will cover the material from the second half.  The exam questions include information from the readings and the lectures, which do not necessarily overlap; if you cannot be present at a class session, please be sure to get notes from someone who was.

Grading:  Midterm (35%), Final (35%), presentation and paper (30%).  All grades will be assigned according to a 100 point standard, with A = 90-100, B = 80-89, etc.

Attendance:  Students are expected to attend all class sessions.  If circumstances do not permit attendance, please contact me before class.  More than four unexcused absences may result in a lowering of the grade for the semester.

Texts

Required Texts (available in the bookstore):

(1) Roger Parker, ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera — or — The Oxford History of Opera (the text is identical) [ML1700.O95 1994]

(2) Piero Weiss, Opera: A History in Documents [ML1700.O644 2002]

Also required (available in the Harvill Copy Center):

Texts and Translations to the Operas

Readings (all available as PDF files on D2L):

Julian Budden, The Operas of Verdi

Martin Cooper, French Music, from the Death of Berlioz to the Death of Fauré

William L. Crosten, French Grand Opera: An Art and a Business

Winton Dean, Essays on Opera

Edward J. Dent, The Rise of Romantic Opera

Eduard Hanslick, Music Criticisms 1846-99

Joseph Kerman, Opera as Drama (revised edition)

Ernest Newman, More Opera Nights

Ernest Newman, Opera Nights

Ernest Newman, The Wagner Operas

Piero Weiss & Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World

Ulrich Weisstein, ed., The Essence of Opera

 

General reference:

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera [ML102.O6N5 1992b in reference and on-line]

 

Important Dates:

Midterm: Tuesday, February 23

Papers due: Within two weeks of class presentation

Final Exam: Tuesday, May 11

 

 

Class Sessions (the amount of class time given to each topic may be subject to change):

 

Week One (January 14):  Italian Opera and Rossini.

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)

Listening:  Rossini, Tancredi [M1503.R835T3 1970]; L'italiana in Algeri [M1503.R835I8 1966]

Reading:  Budden, vol. 1, pp. 3-24; Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 169-177 (Oxford History, pp. 114-120); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 172-175 (no. 27)

Question:  In the use of form and pacing, how do these operas compare to 18th-century examples of opera seria and opera buffa?

 

Week Two (January 19):  Bellini and Donizetti.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

Listening:  Bellini, Norma [M1503.B455N754]; Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor [M1500.D683L7 1992]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 177-190 (Oxford History, pp. 120-127)

Question:  How does the use of form and pacing in these works compare with Rossini's operas?

 

Week Three (January 26):  Early Verdi.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

Listening:  Macbeth [M1503.V48m], Rigoletto [M1503.V48rS]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 190-198 (Oxford History, pp. 128-133); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 185-196 (no. 31)

Question:  How does the use of form and pacing in the operas of Verdi compare with that of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti?

 

Week Four (February 2):  German Romantic Opera.

E. T. A Hoffmann (1776-1822)

Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861)

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

Listening:  Weber, Der Freischütz [M1500.W374f]

Reading:  Dent, The Rise of Romantic Opera, pp. 145-161; Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 206-217 (Oxford History, pp. 138-144); Opera: A History in Documents, 175-178 (no. 28)

Question:  To what extent did the business of opera affect the work of librettists and composers?

 

Week Five (February 9):  French Grand Opera.

François-Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782-1871)

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)

Listening:  Boieldieu, La dame blanche [M1503.B67 D3]; Auber, La muette de Portici [M1503.A888m]; Meyerbeer, Le prophète [M1503.M613P76]

Reading: Oxford History, pp. 88-105 (Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 129-153); Opera: A History in Documents, 179-181 (no. 29); Crosten, chapters 1, 8

Question:  To what extent did the business of opera affect the work of librettists and composers?

 

Week Six (February 16):  Wagner I.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Listening:  Lohengrin [M1503.W13l]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 217-223 (Oxford History, pp. 144-148); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 196-201 (no. 32)

Question:  Compare Wagner's early operas with French and Italian opera.

 

Week Seven (February 23):  Midterm.  Wagner II

Midterm Examination (Tuesday, February 23)

 

Week Eight (March 2):  Wagner II.

Listening:  Das Rheingold [M1503.W13rrK14]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 223-236 (Oxford History, pp. 148-156); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 196-211 (nos. 32-33); Newman, The Wagner Operas, pp. 493-510; Hanslick, pp. 129-156

Question:  Compare Wagner's operatic reforms with the reform movements studied last semester.

 

Week Nine (March 9):  French Opera after 1850.

Charles Gounod (1818-1893)

Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)

Listening:  Gounod, Faust [M1503.G711fS 1966]; Bizet, Carmen [M1503.B625c]; Massenet, Manon [M1503.M41m 1940]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 153-168 (Oxford History, pp. 105-113); Cooper, chapters 1, 5; Weisstein, pp. 222-226

Question:  How has French opera changed since the first half of the century?

 

Spring Recess (Saturday, March 13 through Sunday, March 21)

 

Week Ten (March 23):  Operetta.  Nationalist Opera.

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)

Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)

W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911)

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Listening:  Offenbach, Les contes d'Hoffmann [M1503.O32 C62 1959]; Johann Strauss, Die Fledermaus [M1503.S911 F45 2001]; Gilbert and Sullivan, Utopia Limited [M1503.S949 U7], Iolanthe [M1503.S949i S3]; Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov (Rimsky-Korsakov version) [M1503.M98bK]; Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin [M1503.C434E8 1936]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 237-278 (Oxford History, pp. 157-185); Weiss & Taruskin, pp. 388-396 (nos. 112-114) (2nd ed., pp. 331-338 [nos. 115-117]); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 212-223 (nos. 34-35)

Question:  How indebted are these composers to Western European models of opera?

 

Week Eleven (March 30):  Late Verdi and Italian Opera.

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Listening:  Verdi, Otello [M1503.V48oI]; Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana [M1503.M395c]; Puccini, Manon Lescaut [M1503.P97ma]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 194-205 (Oxford History, pp. 131-137); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 230-258 (nos. 37-39)

Question:  To what extent is Italian opera from the latter part of the 19th century influenced by the operas of Wagner?

 

Week Twelve (April 6):  French and German Opera after Wagner.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Listening:  Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande [M1503.D289P32 1962]; Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier [M1503.S91r]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 279-293 (Oxford History, pp. 186-196); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 258-272 (nos. 40-41); Kerman, chapter 7; Newman, Opera Nights, pp. 508-540; Weiss & Taruskin, pp. 415-416 (no. 121) (2nd ed., pp. 353-354 [no. 124])

Question:  How indebted are Debussy's and Strauss's operatic techniques to Wagner's?  Does the use of a play as the text of an opera, as opposed to a versified libretto, affect the musical result?

 

Week Thirteen (April 13):  Opera between the World Wars.

Alban Berg (1885-1935)

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Listening:  Berg, Wozzeck [M1503.B493W93]; Weill, Der Dreigroschenoper [M1503.W42dr]; Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District [Katerina Ismailova, M1503 .S559l]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 279-309 (Oxford History, pp. 196-205); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 283-288 (no. 45), 297-303 (no. 47); Kerman, chapter 9; Weiss & Taruskin, pp. 477-478 (no. 140) (2nd ed., pp. 403-405 [no. 143])

 

Week Fourteen (April 20):  Opera after World War II.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Igor Stravinsky (1881-1971)

Listening:  Britten, Peter Grimes [M1503.B86p]; Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress [M1500.S913ra]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 309-324 (Oxford History, pp. 206-216); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 306-318 (nos. 48-49); Weisstein, pp. 353-360

Question:   To what extent is Stravinsky's musical technique indebted to Mozart's?

 

Week Fifteen (April 27):  Later Twentieth-Century Opera.

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Philip Glass (b.1937)

John Adams (b.1947)

Poulenc, Dialogues des Carmelites [M1503.P874 D52 1979]; Adams, Nixon in China [M1503.A22 N59 1999]

Reading:  Oxford Illustrated History, pp. 324-349 (Oxford History, pp. 217-234); Opera: A History in Documents, pp. 319-333 (nos. 50-52)

 

Week Sixteen (May 4):  Review.

 

Final Exam (Tuesday, May 11, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.)

 

 

Class Presentation and Term Paper topics:

 

Week of January 26:

Rossini: Otello [M3.R67 ser.1, v.19; CD 2607, CD 4945]

Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore [M1503.D68eS, M1503.D68 E5, M1500.D683 E45 2004; CD 1804, CD 4788, CD 4824; Video-cass 105]

Bellini: I puritani [M1503.B444 P82 1950; CD 1786, CD 10445]

 

Week of February 2:

Rossini: Guillaume Tell [M1503.R835 G8; CD 118]

Verdi: Nabucco [M1503.V48 N3 1970; CD 2322]

Verdi: Luisa Miller [M1503.V48 L9 1970; CD 2367, CD 4803, CD 5263]

 

Week of March 30:

Offenbach: Orphée aux enfers [M1503.O32 O63 2000; CD 2198]

Dvorák: Russalka [M1503.D988r; CD 2268; Video-cass 147]

Janácek: Kata Kabanova [M1500.J36 K3 1992 mini, M1503.J265 K3 1950; CD 2615]

 

Week of April 6:

Verdi: Falstaff [M1500 .V48f, M1500.V47 F3 1980, M1500.V48 F5 1991, M1503 .V48f, M1503.V48 F3 1962; CD 2193, CD 3847, CD 3984; DVD 470, DVD 480]

Leoncavallo: I pagliacci [M1500.L46 P35 K3, M1500.L58 P2 1992, M1503 .L582pS, M1503 .L582pSo, M1503.L582p M14; CD 1365, CD 4870; DVD 619]

Giordano: Andrea Chenier [M1503.G496 A515 1955; CD 3831, CD 4609, CD 10472, CD 10478; Video-cass 21]

 

Week of April 13:

Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle [M1503.B292k, M1503 .B292 op.11 2001; CD 1439, CD 5308]

Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos [M1503 .S91a Oversize, M1500 .S912ar; CD 1405, CD 4521; Video-cass 57]

Weill: Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny [M1503.W42 A91, M1503.W42 M32 1963; CD 1803; DVD 787, DVD 791]

 

Week of April 20:

Berg: Lulu [M1500.B49L (two-act version), M1500.B48 L84 1985 v. 1 and 2 (three-act version), M1503 .B493l (two-act version), M1503.B446 L8 (three-act version); CD 1237]

Thomson: The Mother of Us All [M1503.T485m; CD 1654]

Britten: Billy Budd [M1500.B827 B54 1985, M1503.B86b; CD 2664, CD 10430]

 

Week of April 27:

Floyd: Susannah [M1503 .F645s; CD 1151]

Moore: The Ballad of Baby Doe [M1503.M82b; CD 2100]

Barber: Vanessa [M1503.B23v; CD 2113]

 

 

Instructions for the class presentation:

 

Preparation should include familiarity with the entire opera and study of a selection of written sources, books as well as articles.  Dictionaries can be used as a starting point; internet resources should be used with caution.

 

The presentation itself should last approximately 15 minutes and should include:

 

(a) a summary of where the opera fits into the composer's career, including dates and other works composed around the same time.  Do not repeat information already covered in class, except as directly relevant to the opera under discussion.

 (b) aspects of the work that make it musically distinctive, especially among the composer's other works.  Plan to play at least one extract from the work to illustrate your point(s), but of no longer than five minutes duration.  Do not provide a synopsis of the entire libretto, but give a brief overview of the plot and provide details to place the extract(s) in context.

 (c) other interesting information as noted under the instructions for the term paper.

 

Be brief and concise: it is recommended that you run through your presentation before class.

 

Instructions for the term paper:

 

The term paper for this class should be about eight to ten pages in length and should expand upon the information from the class presentation.  It may include the following elements:

 

(a) relevant historical information concerning the time that the work was composed, including details of the composer's life;

 (b) mention of other works composed around the same time, including works by other composers (as relevant);

 (c) social or political aspects that may have affected the work;

 (d) discussion of the music.

 

The way you decide to approach the opera on which you are writing will determine the extent to which you will want to discuss the work as a whole or concentrate on individual sections.  In addition, each opera will differ in the need for discussion of the historical background and the amount of space devoted to historical and musical aspects.

 

All research should be properly documented in footnotes or endnotes.  You may use any accepted bibliographic style, but you must be consistent.  Be certain to indicate the source of all quotations in footnotes or endnotes, and be sure to include a bibliography of all sources used: any paper that does not identify the sources used by the student will be returned and the student asked to resubmit it (if at the end of the semester, the student will receive an incomplete).