Module description
For many contemporary audiences, the dramatic works of Verdi, Puccini, and their contemporaries are synonymous with opera itself--yet they were produced in a musical and cultural context in many senses alien to our own. In the module, we'll be moving decade by decade through the nineteenth century, listening closely to representative Italian operas in order to develop an understanding of their unique formal and dramatic conventions, and of the larger forces that shaped these works. Major themes will include: the shifting relationship between composers, singers, and audiences; the rise and impact of Italian nationalism;the aesthetics (and changing definitions) of realism; Italian confrontations with 'modernity' and with the world beyond the Alps. Readings will draw on both primary sources (reviews, polemics, biographies, etc.)and recent scholarship. Composers to be discussed include Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito, Amilcare Ponchielli, Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Giacomo Puccini.
Assessment details
2000 word essay [40%]
3000 word essay [60%]
Educational aims & objectives
The operatic achievement of Verdi is placed within the context of the growth of Italian opera in the early nineteenth century, with Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and others as the key figures. The social context within which Verdi worked is shown to have a particular bearing on his work: the cosmopolitanism of his sources,nationalism and the problems of censorship, singers, his biographical circumstances and the need for constant revision of his works for different productions. Examples are taken from all stages of his development, and the course is illustrated with video recordings of the most important works.