MUSIC 323/523

OPERA HISTORY

COURSE OUTLINE SPRING 2007

Please note: dates are approximate; other readings may be assigned

PART 1	OPERA IN THE 17TH CENTURY	Chapter in Parker
Week 1	What Is Opera? Opera forerunners, Florentine Opera, Monteverdi	1
Week 2	Growth and export of Italian Opera, German opera
Week 3	France: Lully and Opera Reforms, England: Purcell
Week 4	CLASS DOES NOT MEET (Optional viewing of an opera TBA)
PART 2	OPERA IN THE 18TH CENTURY
Week 5	Baroque Opera Seria	2
Week 6	Gluck's Operas; Rameau; Comic Opera, Mozart	3
Week 7	Mozart: Italian and German Opera
PART 3	OPERA IN THE 19TH CENTURY
Week 8	Italy: Rossini through early Verdi	5
Week 9	Italy: middle and late operas of Verdi, Verismo
Week 10	German Romantic Opera Wagner	6
Week 11	Wagner; Nationalist Opera	7
Week 12	France: Opera Comique, Operetta, Lyric Opera, Grand Opera	4
PART 4	OPERA IN THE 20TH CENTURY
Week 13	Impressionism	8
Week 14	Puccini, Richard Strauss
Week 15	New Techniques: Berg, Menotti, Glass, Adams	9

Important Dates

Friday Feb 2 Class Does Not Meet

Monday Feb 19 Class Does Not Meet

Monday March 5 Class Does Not Meet

Friday April 6 Class Does Not Meet

Friday April 20 Class Does Not Meet

Monday April 23 Class Does Not Meet

Wednesday April 25 RESEARCH PAPERS DUE

FINAL EXAM: Thursday May 17, 2007 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.