This course is a lecture course with a small enrollment. It is devoted to the study of opera in the first two centuries of its existence, from its beginnings just before 1600 to nearly the end of the eighteenth century. Opera is to be studied critically as music, theater, spectacle, performance medium, and cultural expression. Special aspects of this course include a focus on the singers of baroque opera, the travels of opera, the first opera of the Americas, and the financing and staging of opera. While some of the lectures and listening assignments will be organized around excerpts, others will be designed to focus on whole operas, their music and musical dramaturgy, historical significance, economics, modes of production, and reception in performance. Composers to be studied may include Peri, Da Gagliano, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Lully, Purcell, Hidalgo, A. Scarlatti, Handel, Vivaldi, Hasse, Rameau, Gluck, Salieri, Sarti, Piccinni, and Mozart.

Course Requirements:

The assignments in this course will be primarily listening assignments, supplemented by score study, readings from the online course-pack and materials on reserve, and some in-class performances. Grades will be based on written work and class participation.

Intended Audience:

Open to singers, musicians, and scholars interested in opera or early-modern musical culture, whether they are based in the SMTD, in LSA, or in other units. Graduate students elect MUSICOL 513.