Unit name | Opera & Politics |
---|---|
Unit code | MUSI20120 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Hibberd |
Open unit status | Open |
Pre-requisites |
Technical knowledge of music (ability to read notation fluently is essential; music A level or Associated board grade 8 or equivalent may be required) |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Music |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Opera of the long nineteenth-century was a compelling and topical form of entertainment. This unit aims to develop a critical understanding of opera’s relation to aesthetic, social, cultural and ideological issues; to establish a familiarity with some key works of the period; and to analyse the approaches of some leading musicologists and modern opera directors. Specifically, we will consider the ambiguity and fluidity of political ‘meanings’ embedded in individual operas, and examine ways in which the Zeitgeist might be articulated through libretto, music, staging, performance and reception. The themes and case studies will be drawn from the following: Revolution (Beethoven, Fidelio; Rossini, Guillaume Tell); Gender (Bizet, Carmen; Strauss, Salome); Religion (Halévy, La Juive; Verdi, Don Carlos); Race (Verdi, Otello; Puccini, Mma Butterfly); Nationalism (Wagner, Die Meistersinger; Janacek, Jenufa). The unit will tie into repertory at WNO and/or ENO where possible, and include the opportunity to attend a rehearsal and talk to members of the creative team.
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Weekly two-hour lecture-seminars
The accompanying handout must include a bibliography for the presentation.
Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker, A History of Opera: The Last Four Hundred Years (London, 2012)
Anthony Arblaster, Viva la libertà!: Politics in Opera (London, 1992)
Roger Parker, ed., Oxford Illustrated History of Opera (Oxford, 2001)
Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, Vol. 3: The Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 2005)