Module overview
This module introduces you to operatic and musical-theatrical entertainments produced in Italy, France, Spain and England between 1600 and 1750 and investigates the ways in which their multimedia nature functioned in these diverse milieu.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The main musical, textual, dramatic, and visual components of early modern European opera and musical theatre and the ways in which their socio-political contexts contributed to shaping them.
- The ways in which opera was produced, the economic and social underpinnings behind its production, and its political function.
- The trajectory that brought opera and musical theatre from the court to commercial theatres and the main characteristics of the systems of patronage and of the open market.
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Critically engage with readings and lecture material to formulate your own arguments, and express these in written form.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Engage in debates about performance practice and the staging of Baroque opera.
- Critically assess and debate issues of genre, as they apply to the Baroque period.
Syllabus
Beginning with an overview of the main musical-theatrical genres of the period, you will go on to explore the social contexts in which they emerged, developed, and flourished, as well as the impact these environments had on their musical, textual, dramatic and visual components. You will follow the trajectories that brought private court entertainments to be exported and made available to larger audiences through the emergence of commercial theatres and the star system. Case studies tracing the transformations and consolidations of operatic and musical-theatrical conventions across Europe will include: from commedia dell’arte to opera in Italy; patronage, opera and musical theatre in the courts of Italy, France, Spain and England; the emergence of commercial theatres and the consolidation of conventions. Particular attention will be devoted to Handel’s activity in London, the public theatres, and the rising importance of the singer in the operatic marketplace.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- Lectures
- Class discussion
- Sharing of ideas and materials via Blackboard and other electronic resources
Learning activities include
- A wide range of reading
- Study of selected librettos and musical scores
- Study of selected video recordings
- Individual research
- Use of online resources to find newspaper articles and other material relating to the subjects being studied.
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Teaching | 24 |
Independent Study | 126 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Stein, Louise (1993). Songs of Mortals, Dialogues of the Gods: Music and Theatre in Seventeenth-Century Spain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
LaRue, C. Steven (1995). Handel and His Singers: The Creation of the Royal Academy Operas, 1720–1728. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rosand, Ellen (1991). Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Carter, Tim and John Butt (2005). The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Anthony, James R. (1973). French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau. London: Batsford.
Harris, Ellen T. ed. (1989). The Librettos of Handel’s Operas: A Collection of Seventy-One Librettos Documenting Handel’s Operatic Career. 13 vols. New York: Garland Press.
Burrows, Donald (1994). Handel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 70% |
Outline | 30% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External