28503 - Musical Dramaturgy (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing an approach to and a grasp of Musical Dramaturgy in its basic historical and critical principles.
According to the tenets of the discipline, opera is conceived as an intertwined system of verbal text, dramatic action, and music.
In turn, such a system requires a contextualization within the history of Western music as well as within the history of Western theatre and literature.
At the same time, the course aims at training students in the analysis of operatic music, from both a morphological and a theatrical perspective.

Course contents

Beaumarchais, Da Ponte and Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro from the drama to the opera

During the lessons students will be trained in the dramaturgical and morphological analysis of Le nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart (1786). Particular attention will be paid to the dramatic sources of the opera: Le marriage de Figaro by Beaumarchais, in comparison with the other two Da Ponte-Mozart operas, Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1790).

Readings/Bibliography

For all student (Music and Theatre):

• the libretto of Le nozze di Figaro: facsimile of the first edition (Vienna 1786) in The Librettos of Mozart's Operas, vol. 5: The Da Ponte Operas, ed. by E. Warburton (New York, Garland, 1992), online in <https://www.loc.gov/resource/musschatz.16980.0/?sp=3&r=-0.396,0.341,1.202,0.455,0.>;
• the libretto in modern edition in Tutti i libretti di Mozart, ed. by M. Beghelli (Milan, Garzanti, 1990);
• Beaumarchais' Le mariage de Figaro: French edition or English translation.

For students of Music:

• the study score of Mozart's opera, critical edition «Neue Mozart-Ausgabe»: Le
  nozze di Figaro, ed. by L. Finscher (Kassel, Bärenreiter, 2005 = n. ed. Bärenreiter TP 601), online in <https://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/nmapub_srch.php?l=2>

For all student (Music and Theatre):

Rudiments of musical dramaturgy:

• C. Dahlhaus, Drammaturgia dell'opera italiana, Turin, EDT, 2005;
• L. Bianconi - G. Pagannone, Piccolo glossario di drammaturgia musicale, in Insegnare il
  melodramma. Saperi essenziali, proposte didattiche, a cura di G. Pagannone, Lecce-Iseo, Pensa MultiMedia, 2010, pp. 201-263 (<http://box.dar.unibo.it/files/didattica/Glossario-di-Drammaturgia_musicale.pdf>).

Rudiments of Italian metrics and prosody:

• L. Bianconi, Il libretto d'opera, in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero – Musica, ed. by S. Cappelletto, Rome, Istituto per l’Enciclopedia Italiana, 2017, pp. 187-208
• P. Fabbri, Metro e canto nell'opera italiana, Turin, EDT, 2007.

About Mozart and Le Nozze di Figaro:

• P. De Matteis, Musica e gesto nel teatro mozartiano. Le didascalie musicali nelle "Nozze di Figaro", Lucca, LIM, 2020;
• M.H. Schmid, Le opere teatrali di Mozart, Turin, Bollati Boringhieri, 2010;
• F. Noske, The signifier and the signified: studies in the operas of Mozart and Verdi, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1977 (in part. for Music students);
• Kunze, Il teatro di Mozart, Venice, Marsilio,
  1990;
• J. Scherer, Beaumarchais: Le mariage de Figaro,
  édition avec analyse dramaturgique, Paris, SEDES, 1966 (in part. for Theatre students);
• F. d'Amico, Forma divina. Saggi sull'opera lirica e il balletto, ed. by N. Badolato and L. Bianconi, Florence, Leo S. Olschki, 2012 (chapters about Mozart's operas).

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons, workshops and practices on score and libretto. Viewing of audiovisual materials.

Assessment methods

During the exam (oral interview) students will have to demonstrate their knowledge about the bibliography and the drama by Beaumarchais compared with the libretto of Mozart's opera, in its system of metric and musical forms.

Students in Music are required to know the score of Le nozze di Figaro; they will report on the poetic, narrative, and theatrical structure; on musical morphology; on the relations with literary sources.

Students in Theatre and other degree courses are exempt from the in-depth knowledge of the score; but they will have to know Mozart's opera on the basis of a repeated listening and analysis of the poetic, narrative, and theatrical structure (also in relation to the literary source).

During the interview, rudiments of Italian metrics and versification will be ascertained.

Students who intend to account for only 6 CFU will agree a reduced program with the teacher (<nicola.badolato@unibo.it>.

Teaching tools

Collateral activities will be announced at the beginning of the class.

Office hours

See the website of Nicola Badolato