Critical Approaches to Opera Studies

Why opera now? In what ways can a 400-year-old art form speak to the needs of contemporary society? This seminar provides an introduction to critical opera studies: we will analyze a broad range of lyric repertory (spanning from Monteverdi to Saariaho) while interrogating the debates these works have generated, both historically and in the present day. Topics to be considered include: operatic institutions and conventions; gender and voice; theories of “text” and liveness; modernist staging; the troubling legacies of Empire and exoticism; and the intersections of opera and multimedia (opera on/as film, opera in HD, site-specific opera). Wherever possible, this course will incorporate live performance in New York, engaging the Metropolitan Opera as well as institutions for “indie” opera and new music. While completion of Music Humanities is a suggested pre-requisite, this class welcomes interdisciplinary perspectives. Individual assignments may be tailored to accommodate student interests and backgrounds outside of the field of music.