03522 - Musical Dramaturgy

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student: knows the historical profile of the development of opera, especially in Italy; is able to describe selected passages from the large opera repertoire; acquires the basic tools to read the structures of opera as a complex system made of word, action and music.

Course contents

This course consists of two modules (30 hours each). Students who must take a 6 credits examination, they are required to prepare for the first module.

 

Module 1: Problems of musical dramaturgy

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto (1851), based on a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, is taken as a model for studying the main issues related to the three constitutive texts of the musical theatre: verbal text, musical text and visual text.

 

Module 2: Historical Exploration

The historical events of Italian opera are dealt with in the light of the formal changes of libretto and music, through five exemplifications:

- as an example of opera of the seventeenth century: L’incoronazione di Poppea attributed to Claudio Monteverdi (1643), based on a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello

- as an example of opera seria of the eighteenth century: L’Olimpiade by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1735), based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio

- as an example of eighteenth-century opera buffa: Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1786), based on a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte

- as an example of opera of the early nineteenth century: Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti (1835), based on a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano

- as an example of opera at the beginning of the twentieth century: Tosca by Giacomo Puccini (1900), based on a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Students will add a sixth title at their choice, even non-Italian, to be studied independently applying the methodologies learned from the course bibliography and the contents of the specific bibliography of the chosen opera.

Readings/Bibliography

WARNING: To avoid scrapping the library's volumes with repeated copying, many of the bibliographic materials listed below (journal articles or individual book chapters, sometimes out of print) are made available in anthological handouts (PDF format) on the VIRTUAL platform; exceptions are the books to be studied in their entirety, which are supposed to be directly acquired by students.

***Please see the bibliographical list in the Italian version of this syllabus.***

 

 

 

Teaching methods

The first module class concerns some dramaturgical issues of the nineteenth-century Italian opera, exemplified through passages from Rigoletto and other works: it will not be an "explanation" of the bibliography assigned for the exam, but a “complementary teaching” for the attending students. Students will personally complete the investigation through the above-mentioned bibliography (identical for attending and non-attending students). In the second module, some scenes from the five operas planned will be presented and commented, highlighting the aesthetic and formal differences.

Assessment methods

The exam is divided into a written and an oral examination scheduled for the same day. The written test will be performed on the computer (headphone listening and word processing) using a PC of the Dipartimento delle Arti.

The written part, in the early hours of the morning (duration: 120 minutes), consists of:

- a metric test: students are required to identify the meter of a dozen lines and illustrate some relevant metric phenomena (those indicated in the Guida alla identificazione metrica dei versi italiani);

- a check on the topics of Module 1: students are required to explain one or more dramatic issues related to Rigoletto; the questions may be about the transition from the literary source to the operatic realization, a specific formal structure, a narrative mechanism, a performance problem, or anything else treayted in the exam bibliography above;

- a check on the operas of Module 2: recognition of an important scene from the five above listed works is required; students shall indicate its position within the drama (who are the acting characters and what events take place in that scene), as well as the formal and stylistic peculiarities that can be highlighted in listening to it (e. g. a Sinfonia in sonata form, a recitativo secco, a da capo aria, a solita forma duet, a concertato di stupore, etc.), to be explained according to its position in the history of Italian opera.

During the oral examination, late in the morning or in the afternoon of the same day, students shall discuss an operatic title (even non-Italian) other than those discussed during the course and above listed. Students are expected to choose it at their choice and study it independently applying the methodologies learned from the bibliography related to the two modules of the course, identifying by itself the specific bibliography to study the chosen work (from the literary source of the libretto, to a supporting audio/video execution). More specifically, students are required to move within the relationship between individual scenes of the opera and the original literary source (if any), the poetry meters used in the libretto, the musical makrostruttures evidenced by reading the libretto and listening to the music, the basic dramatic and musical characteristics highlighted in the peculiar passages of the opera.

In order to better support the oral part of the exam, students shall sit with a typographically reliable version of the opera libretto (rarely the booklets of cd and dvd are reliable), to easy identify the metric and formal structures prepared by the poet: For example, the reproduction of the first edition of the libretto (available for Italian operas in http://corago.unibo.it/risultatolibretti ), or a good modern transcriptions, in print (recommended the volume Libretti d'opera italiani dal Seicento al Novecento, edited by Giovanna Gronda and Paolo Fabbri, Milano, Mondadori, 1997) or online (generally reliable the database at http://www.librettidopera.it [http://www.librettidopera.it/] ). Vocal scores or full scores are welcome for those who know how to help; even for others, the advice is not to intimidate and strive to follow the musical performance with the eyes on a vocal score, after having imbued with the work through listening aided by the only libretto.

The written and oral exams are inseparable parts of the same examination, which are indisputably scheduled on the same date, and will give rise to a single, average rating of the result of each test. Sufficient is attributed to those who prove to orient themselves in the metric feature of a libretto and the basic theoretical notions discussed in Module 1, as well as demonstrate a basic knowledge of the five operas of Module 2 and the opera of their choice. Possessing a broader organic vision on the history of opera, mastering a specific language, connecting the concepts acquired and formulating original reflections are estimated with a gradual increase in the overall evaluation.

Teaching tools

During the course, the operas on the syllabus will be studied by analysing the libretto and listening to audio and video performances of individual scenes. In support of frontal lectures, students have to rely on the indicated bibliography, that is useful to focus attention on various issues suggested by the verbal text and the musical text; many texts are made available on the VIRTUALE digital platform (https://virtuale.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=28117). The repeated listening of the entire operas is important, moreover, with the support of at least the libretto.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Beghelli