Course Information
Description
Opera is a form of theater that mixes singing and orchestral sound with poetry and visual spectacle in stagings. Performances of opera, by engaging (and sometimes even overwhelming) multiple senses, challenge us to question intellectual truisms like critical detachment. For some people opera is the most beautiful and moving musical genre that has ever existed. For others, opera means unreasonable demands on stamina (five-hour operas are not rare) and a level of acoustic strangeness that results in non-negotiable dislike. Opera above all centers the singers, whose voices are the planet’s most powerful unamplified human sonic force.
Lectures cover opera’s history and evolution, starting from its origins in Italy around 1600, with a focus on the central operatic repertory from the 1780s (Mozart) through nineteenth-century Romanticism, to the early-twentieth century. We touch briefly on opera since World War 2, contemporary opera as global phenomenon, opera stagings, sociological and political issues, and technology’s influence on opera.
Course Notes
No previous music courses, no expertise in music theory or ability to read music, are required. You will learn how to hear and understand operatic forms and musical details, about voice types and character types, and how these phenomena create drama.
Class Notes
Sections will be Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
NOTE: This course requires additional sections; you will be prompted to choose secondary components during the Add to Cart process
