1
Spring Semester 2008
MuHL 681: Studies in Musicology:
Opera Seria
Instructor: Prof. Bruce Alan BrownTu., 5:00-7:50, WPH 304G
Office hour (by appointment):Mon. 1:00-2:00, Tu. 3:00-4:00, WPH 304A
Tel.: 213/740-3212 (dept. assistant: -3211)E-mail:
This course is being offered as a research seminar for graduate students in Musicology and Early Music, Musicology minors, and interested, qualified students in other degree programs. Its main goals are:
to acquaint students withthe dominant form of European opera from the late 17th century to the early 19th century, a form that was crucial in the emergence of the Classical style;
to acquaint students with important historical,aesthetic, literary, social, theoretical, and performance-practice issues connected with the rise and dominance of dramma per musica;
to provide an introduction to current research tools, methodologies, and writings on the genre;
to provide opportunities to use primary sources in the investigation of this type of musical theater. These materials will include such things asoriginal editions (or facsimiles) of librettos and historical, critical, or theoretical writings; facsimiles of 18th-century scores (mainly in manuscript); and iconographic evidence on staging practices.
Prerequisites: MuHL 570 (or its equivalent at another institution), and a general acquaintance with the music and culture of the early and mid-18th century; some knowledge of Italian is desirable, though not absolutely required.
This being a research seminar, there will not be a precisely scheduled sequence of topics; the emphases and amount of time spent on different aspects of the subject will be determined in large part by the interests, prior knowledge, and language skills of the persons enrolled in it. But we will cover the following main areas, in roughly this order:
the Arcadian Academy
the business of dramma per musica: impresarial, civic, and court theaters
the singer’s role in the creation of dramma per musica
the career and influence of Pietro Metastasio
opera in Handel’s London
the azione (or festa) teatrale
costuming, staging, and acting practices
Mozart and opera seria
the wider role of dramma per musica in European culture
Though we will take advantage of the availability of facsimile scores (e.g., in the Garland series), we will focus to some extent on repertory that has been recorded (for the most part, attractively):
operas by Vivaldi (mainly in the series published by Opus 111/Naïve)
settings of Hasse’s Cleofide and Handel’s Poro (both of them based on Metastasio’s libretto Alessandro nell’Indie)
Gluck’s pre-reform Italian operas (or excerpts thereof)
Mozart’s opere serie for Milan and Prague
Evaluation:
There will be no formal examinations; rather, evaluation will be based on the following:
30%general participation in discussions, showing evidence of close and thorough acquaintance with assigned and recommended readings and listenings;
20%informal week-to-week presentations, as assigned;
30%formal end-of-semester research paper;
20%in-class oral presentation of research paper (in preliminary form).
We will likely use the assigned final-exam period (Tuesday, 13 May, 4:30-6:30) – or another time, if more convenient for all, plus the last one or two class meetings for paper presentations.
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday; phone: 213/740-0776.
In the event of an emergency, please contact the USC Emergency Information office at 213/740-9233. Students are also encouraged to enroll in USC’s new TrojansAlert system, which allows University officials to contact members of the campus community during an emergency by sending messages (text or voice) to e-mail accounts, cell phones, pagers, BlackBerries, smart phones, and land-line phones; see and also the more general website
The USC Code of Academic Integrity applies to all portions of this course; see summary below, and the pertinent sections of the Student Judicial Affairs website and especially the online publications there “Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism” and “Understanding and Avoiding Academic Dishonesty.”
Academic Dishonesty Sanction Guidelines
Violation / Recommended Sanction for Undergraduates*Copying answers from other students on exam.** / F for course.
One person allowing another to cheat from his/her exam or assignment. / F for course for both persons.
Possessing or using material during exam (crib sheets, notes, books, etc.) which is not expressly permitted by the instructor. / F for course.
Continuing to write after exam has ended. / F for course.
Taking exam from room and later claiming that the instructor lost it. / F for course and recommendation for further disciplinary action (possible suspension).
Changing answers after exam has been returned. / F for course and recommendation for further disciplinary action (possible suspension).
Fraudulent possession of exam prior to administration. / F for course and recommendation for suspension.
Obtaining a copy of an exam or answer key prior to administration. / Suspension or expulsion from the university; F for course.
Having someone else take an exam for oneself. / Suspension or expulsion from the university for both students; F for course.
Plagiarism. / F for course.
Submission of purchased term papers or papers done by others. / F for course and recommendation for further disciplinary action (possible suspension).
Submission of the same term papers to more than one instructor, where no previous approval has been given. / F for both courses.
Unauthorized collaboration on an assignment. / F for the course for both students.
Falsification of information in admission applications (including supporting documentation). / Revocation of university admission without opportunity to reapply.
Documentary falsification (e.g., petitions and supporting materials; medical documentation). / Suspension or expulsion from the university; F for course when related to a specific course.
Plagiarism in a graduate thesis or dissertation. / Expulsion from the university when discovered prior to graduation; revocation of degree when discovered subsequent to graduation.
*Assuming first offense
**Exam, quiz, tests, assignments or other course work.
READINGS/ RESERVES
A= Ares electronic reserves
C= Clark Library (Special Collections, UCLA)
E= Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)
eb= electronic book, available via Homer catalogue
GRI= Getty Research Institute
o= reserve in my office (WPH 304A)
r= reserve shelves (Music Library)
R= reference shelves (Music Library)
S= USC Special Collections
SRLF= Southern Regional Library Facility (UCLA)
www= online (with URL indicated)
Don’t worry –you aren't expected to read all of the following! Thesources in this list can serve as starting points for class discussion and for term-paper projects. More items will no doubt be added as the semester progresses; I’ll send out later iterations of the syllabus so you can keep up with additions. (Note that URLs in the text are active links.) A few items listed are at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) at UCLA, and are included here for reference; one or more other books from UCLA can be consulted in my office (but can't be put on reserve).
Books: Reference Sources
RAlm, Irene, Catalog of Venetian librettos at the University of California, Los Angeles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) ML136 L842 U682 1993 ref.
RBrill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the ancient world. Antiquity, ed. Hubert Cancik and Helmut Schneider; English edn. ed. Christine F. Salazar, 11 vols. (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2002-)
DE5.N4813 2002 v.1-11 ref. [Classics, in Doheny]
rFubini, Enrico, ed., Music and culture in eighteenth-century Europe: A source book (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1994) ML240.3 M8613 1994
RLoewenberg, Alfred, Annals of opera, 1597-1940, 3rd edn. (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978) ML102.O6L6 1978 ref.
RSadie, Stanley, ed., The New Grove dictionary of opera, 4 vols. (London: Macmillan; New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1992) ML102 O6 N5 1992 ref.
RSonneck, Oscar George Theodore, ed., Library of Congress. Music Division. Catalogue of opera librettos printed before 1800, 3 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1914)
ML136 U5O5, v. 1-3 ref.
RSartori, Claudio, I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800: catalogo analitico con 16 indici, 7 vols. (Cuneo: Bertola e Locatelli, 1990-4) ML136 A1 S27 1990 ref.
AWotquenne, Alfred, Table alphabétique des morceaux mesurés contenus dans les œuvres dramatiques de Zeno, Metastasio et Goldoni (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hÿaurtel, 1905)
Books: Primary Sources
EAlgarotti, Francesco, An essay on the opera. Written in Italian by Count Algarotti, trans. anon. (Glasgow: R. Urie, 1768)
rAlgarotti, Francesco, Saggio sopra l'opera in musica: Le edizioni di Venezia (1755) e di Livorno (1763) (Lucca: Libreria musicale italiana, 1989) ML3858.A37 1989
rArteaga, Esteban, Le rivoluzioni del teatro musicale italiano, 3 vols. (Bologna: Trenti, 1783-8; reprint Bologna: Forni, 1969) ML1733.3 A78 v. 1-3
rAustin, Gilbert, Chironomia: Or, A treatise on rhetorical delivery, ed. Mary Margaret Robb and Lester Thonssen (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1966) PN4165.A8 1966
wwwBrosses, Charles de,Le président de Brosses en Italie: Lettres familières écrites d'Italie en 1739 et 17402nd ed., 2 vols. (Paris: Didier, 1858) available at
EBrown, John, Letters upon the poetry and music of the Italian opera; addressed to a friend (Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute; London: C. Elliot and T. Kay, 1789)
E,SBurney, Charles, Memoirs of the life and writings of the Abate Metastasio, including translations of his principal letters by Charles Burney, Mus.D. F.R.S. (London: G.G. and J. Robinson, 1796)
PQ4719.A2 1796, v. 1-3
RBurney, Charles, A general history of music, from the earliest ages to the present period (1789), ed. Frank Mercer, vol. 2 (New York: Dover, 1957) ML159.B96 1957 v.2 ref.
wwwBurney, Charles, The present state of music in France and Italy, 2nd edn. (London: T. Becket, 1773)
EBurney, Charles, The present state of music in France and Italy(London: T. Becket, 1771)
rCorri, Domenico, Domenico Corri's treatises on singing, ed. Richard Maunder, vol. 1: A select collection of the most admired songs, duetts, &c. (London/Edinburgh, [1795]; New York: Garland, 1993)
MT890.D65 1993 v.1
AHiller, Johann Adam, Sechs italiänische Arien verschiedener Componisten, mit der Art sie zu singen und zu verändern; nebst einer kurzen Anleitung für die, die der italänischen Sprache nicht kundig sind (Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Junius, 1778)
ebHiller, Johann Adam, Treatise on vocal performance and ornamentation, trans. Suzanne J. Beicken [of Anweisung zum musikalisch-zierlichen Gesange] (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001) MT840.H6613 2001eb
SGravina, Giovanni Vincenzo, Della tragedia libro uno (Naples: Felice Mosca, 1731)
808.2.G777D 1731
EGrosley, Pierre Jean, New observations on Italy and its inhabitants. Written in French by two Swedish gentlemen. Translated into English by Thomas Nugent, 2 vols. (London: L. Davis and C. Reymers, 1769)
AMarcello, Benedetto, Il teatro alla moda ([Venice, 1720])
AMarcello, Benedetto, “Il teatro alla moda – Part I,” trans. Reinhard G. Pauly, The musical quarterly 34 (1948), 371-403
AMarcello, Benedetto, “Il teatro alla moda – Part II,” trans. Reinhard G. Pauly, The musical quarterly 35 (1949), 85-105
EMetastasio, Pietro, Dramas and other poems of the Abbé Metastasio, transl. John Hoole, 3 vols. (London: Otridge, 1800)
(includes: [vol. 1] Artaxerxes, The Olympiad, Hypsipyle, Titus, Demetrius, The dream of Scipio; [vol. 2] Achilles in Scyros, Demophoon, Adrian in Syria, Dido, Aetius, The uninhabited island, The triumph of glory; [vol. 3] Zenobia, Themistocles, Siroes, Regulus, Romulus and Hersilia)
AMetastasio, Pietro, “Estratto dell’Arte poetica d’Aristotele, e considerazioni sulla medesima,”vol. 13 ofOpere dell'abate Pietro Metastasio, 14 vols. (Prato: Vannini, 1820)
rMetastasio, Pietro, Opere scelte, ed. Franco Gavazzeni (Turin: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, [1968]) PQ4717.A12 1968
(includes: Didone abbandonata, Catone in Utica, Artaserse, Issipile, L'Olimpiade, Attilio Regolo, Il re pastore; L'asilo d'amore, Il Parnaso confuso, Le cinesi; Estratto dall'Arte poetica d'Aristotele [excerpts], letters [excerpts])
SMetastasio, Poesie, ed., with “Dissertazione su le poesie drammatiche del abate P. Metastasio,” by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi (Paris: Vedova Quillau, 1755) PQ4717.P6 1755 v. 1-9
AMilizia, Francesco, Del teatro, 2nd edn. (Venice: Pasquali, 1773)
rTosi, Pier Francesco, Introduction to the art of singing [Opinioni de' cantori antichi e moderni, ed. Johann Friedrich Agricola], transl. Julianne Baird (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
MT892 T6713 1995
rTosi, Pier Francesco, Observations on the florid song [Opinioni de' cantori antichi e moderni, trans. by Mr. Galliard, ed. Michael Pilkington (London: Stainer and Bell, 1987) MT892 T6713 1987
Books: Secondary Sources
rBarbier, Patrick, Farinelli : Le castrat des Lumières (Paris: B. Grasset, 1994)
ML420.F25B37 1994 [GRAND]
rBarbier, Patrick, Histoire des castrats (Paris: B. Grasset, 1989)ML400.B37 1989 [GRAND]
rBianconi, Lorenzo, and Giorgio Pestelli, eds., Opera in theory and practice, image and myth, transl. Kenneth Chalmers and Mary Whittall (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2002)
ML1733.T46 2003
rBianconi, Lorenzo, and Giorgio Pestelli, eds., Opera on stage, trans. Kate Singleton (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2002) ML1733.S7513 1998 vol. 5
rBianconi, Lorenzo, and Giorgio Pestelli, eds., Opera production and its resources, trans. Lydia Cochrane (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998) ML1733.S7513 pt. 2 v. 4
rDean, Winton, rev. John Merrill Knapp, Handel's operas, 1704-1726 (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) ML410.H13B354 1995
rFeldman, Martha, Opera and sovereignty: Transforming myths in eighteenth-century Italy (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007) ML1733.3.F45 2007
wwwForment, Bruno, “La terra, il cielo, e l'inferno: The representation and reception of Greco-Roman mythology in opera seria” (PhD diss., University of Ghent, 2007)
rGjerdingen, Robert O., Music in the galant style (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)
ML240.3.G54 2007
rHaböck, Franz, Die Gesangskunst der Kastraten. Erster Notenband: A. Die Kunst des Cavaliere Carlo Broschi Farinelli. B. Farinellis berühmte Arien. Eine Stimmbiographie in Beispielen aus Handschriften und frühen Drucken. Gesammelt und für den Studien- und Konzertgebrauch bearb. und erläutert von Franz Haböck. Sämtliche Klavierauszüge von Ferdinand Rebay. (Vienna: Universal-Edition, 1923)
m780.29 H116G
AHansell, Kathleen Kuzmick, “Opera and ballet at the Regio Ducal Teatro in Milan, 1771-1776: A musical and social history” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1980)
rHeartz, Daniel, Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese school, 1740-1780 (New York: Norton, 1995)
ML246.8.V6 H4 1995
rHeartz, Daniel, with Thomas Bauman, Mozart's operas (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990) ML410.M9 H2 1990
rHeartz, Daniel, Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720-1780 (New York: Norton, 2003)
ML240.3 H43 2003
rLee, Vernon [pseud. Violet Paget], Studies of the eighteenth century in Italy, 2nd ed. (London: Fisher Unwin, 1907) PQ4084.P3 1907
rMcClymonds, Marita, Niccolò Jommelli: The last years, 1769-1774 (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1980)
ML410.J7 M14
rMillner, Fredrick, The operas of Johann Adolf Hasse (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1979)
ML410.H35 M5 1979
rMontagu, Jennifer, The expression of the passions: The origin and influence of Charles Le Brun’s “Conférence sur l'expression générale et particulière” (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994)
NC825.E55M66 1994
rPrice, Curtis and Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume, Italian opera in late eighteenth-century London. I. The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1778-1791(Oxford: Clarendon, 1995)
ML1731.8.L72 P76 1995 v. 1
rRice, John A., W. A. Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991)
ML410.M9 R54 1991
rStrohm, Reinhard, Dramma per musica: Italian opera seria of the eighteenth century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997) ML1733.3.S87 1997
rStrohm, Reinhard, Essays on Handel and Italian opera (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985) ML410.H13S75 1985
RStrohm, Reinhard, Italienische Opernarien des frühen Settecento: (1720-1730) (Cologne: A. Volk, 1976) ML160.S893 v. 16 pt. 1-2
Articles, Chapters, Essays
ABarnett, Dene, and Ian Parker, “Finding the appropriate attitude,” Early music 8 (1980): 65-70
ABrown, Bruce Alan, “‘Mon opéra italien’: Giacomo Durazzo and the genesis of Alcide al bivio,” in Pietro Metastasio, uomo universale (1698-1782), ed. Elisabeth Hilscher and Andrea Sommer-Mathis (Vienna: Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2000), 115-42
ACarter, Tim, “Verse and music in Le nozze di Figaro,” in W. A. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, 75-87 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)
ADegrada, Francesco, “Vivaldi e Metastasio: Note in margine a una lettura dell’Olimpiade,” in Vivaldi Veneziano Europeo, ed. Francesco Degrada, 155-81 (Florence: Olschki, 1980)
AFeldman, Martha, “Music and the order of the passions,” in Representing the passions: Histories, bodies, visions, ed. Richard Meyer, 37-67 (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2003)
NX650.E46R47 2003
AFreeman, Daniel, “An eighteenth-century singer’s commission of ‘baggage arias,’“ Early music 20 (1992): 427-33
AFreitas, Roger, “The eroticism of emasculation: Confronting the baroque body of the castrato,” Journal of musicology 20 (2003): 196-249
AHeartz, Daniel, “Farinelli revisted,”Early music18:3 (1990): 430-43
AHeartz, Daniel, “Hasse, Galuppi and Metastasio,”Venezia e il melodramma nel settecento, ed. Maria Teresa Muraro (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1978), 309-39
AHeartz, Daniel, “Metastasio, ‘maestro dei maestri di cappella drammatici,’" Metastasio e il mondo musicale, ed. Maria Teresa Muraro, pref. by Gianfranco Folena (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1986)
AHeartz, Daniel, “Mozart and his Italian contemporaries: ‘La clemenza di Tito,’“ Mozart-Jahrbuch 1978/79, 275-93
AHeartz, Daniel, “Portrait of a primo uomo: Carlo Scalzi in Venice ca. 1740,”Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft 12 (1994): 133-45
AJones, Andrew V., “Staging a Handel opera,” Early music, 34 (2006): 277-88
ALibby, Dennis, “Italy: Two opera centres,” in The Classical era: From the 1740's to the end of the 18th century, ed. Neal Zaslaw (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989)
RLippmann, Friedrich, “Der italienische Vers und der musikalische Rhythmus. Zum Verhältnis von Vers und Musik in der italienischen Oper des 19. Jahrhunderts, mit einem Rückblick auf die 2. Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts,”Analecta musicologica 12 (1973): 253-369
APauly, Reinhard G., “Benedetto Marcello's satire on early 18th-century opera,” The musical quarterly 34 (1948): 222-33
,APetrobelli, Pierluigi, “Il re pastore di Guglielmi e di Mozart,” in Mozart e i musicisti italiani del suo tempo, Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Roma, 21—22 ottobre 1991, ed. Annalisa Bini (Lucca: Libreria musicale italiana, 1994)
ASantovetti, Francesca, “Arcadia a Roma Anno Domini 1690: Accademia e vizi di forma,” MLN 112 (1997): 21-37
AWiesend, Reinhard, “Der Held als Rolle: Metastasios Alexander,”Opernheld und Opernheldin im 18. Jahrhundert: Aspekte der Librettoforschung--Ein Tagungsbericht (Hamburg: Wagner, 1991), 139-52
AWignall, Harrison James, “The genesis of ‘Se di lauri’: Mozart’s drafts and final version of Guglielmo D’Ettore’s entrance aria from Mitridate,” Mozart Studien 5, ed. Manfred Hermann Schmid, 45-99 (Tutzing: Schneider, 1995)
Websites
Castle Theater in Český Krumlov – the site documents the restored 1760s theater in the southern Czech Republic, built by the noble Schwarzenberg family, for which original stage sets, costumes, and even the orchestral livery still survive; with photos and videos