MUSICAL DRAMATURGY

The course falls between the related and integrative teaching of the contemporary curriculum of the Master's Degree in "History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage", with the aim of dealing with research topics in the field of musical dramaturgy, using a methodology strongly characterized by interdisciplinarity, a characteristic demand from musical theater, a real semiological monstrum. The student should be able to develop a critical conscience on the concept of dramaturgy, immanent to different declinations (theater of speech, lyric opera and so on), and at the same time to find a real relationship with a musical repertoire made not only of history, but also of a precise relationship with contemporary artistic crafts (concertation, direction, set design).

1. Knowledge and understanding: understand and be able to analyze critical and theoretical texts that deal with musical dramaturgy, know how to use the resources offered by computer platforms, with regard to audiovisual sources.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: develop a critical conscience in relation to some essential works of musical theater.
3. Ability to judge: ability to formulate conscious exegesis, in relation to the social history of the arts and to politics.
4. Communication skills: reaching an advanced domain of public communication, in close dialogue with one's colleagues and interacting with the teacher, knowing how to exploit the many possibilities that the research offers modern means of communication.
5. Learning skills: knowing how to handle critical texts and bibliographies.

At the end of the course the student will have improved his knowledge of the European musical theater, thanks to the exemplary case in question, and attended a critical methodology appropriate to the peculiarities of the work in music, placed in its historical context.

The exam will focus on the subject actually carried out in the module, at the end of which the exam program and the reference bibliography will be specified. For the general arrangement see The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, ed. by Jim Samson, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001 («The Cambridge History of Music»), passim. Those attending the course must have read at least the Introduction to Musical dramaturgy, edited by Lorenzo Bianconi (Bologna, il Mulino, 1986, pp. 7-51)..

Opera and parody: the Offenbach case.

The course aims to frame the cosmopolitan genius of Jacques Offenbach, not surprisingly called "le petit Mozart des Champs-Élysées" but also "le roi du second empire", within the musical theater, French and European, of his time, and to to grasp the constants of his pungent irony, directed against the idiocy of power in all its forms, starting with the contemporary image of French society at the time of Napoleon III (Orphée aux Enfers, 1858-1868) to go to the military aristocracy of général Boum (La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, 1867). In his chain of opéras-bouffes (other than operettas) the scenic play is favored by ideal collaborators, since librettists also working in the major halls of Paris at the time, such as Jules Barbier (author of Faust), or Meilhac act at his service. and Halévy (by Carmen). In particular, we will look at the extreme longing of the King of the opéra-bouffe in the Second Empire, towards the palingenesis in the genre of the opéra-comique attempted in his unfinished masterpiece, Les contes d'Hoffmann, opéra-fantastique in three acts, a prologue and an epilogue.

Homepage: http://www-5.unipv.it/girardi/2023_DM/DM_2023.htm

MINA CURTISS, Bizet, Offenbach and Rossini, «The Musical Quarterly», vol. 40, n. 3, 1954, p. 350-359;
ALAIN DÉCAUX, Offenbach, re del Secondo Impero, Milano, Rusconi, 1981;
Jacques Offenbach «Hoffmanns Erzählungen». Konzeption, Rezeption, Documentation, a cura di Gabriele Brandstetter, Laaber, Laaber Verlag, 1988 (contains essays by SIEGHART DÖHRING, La concezione drammaturgica dei «Racconti di Hoffmann» >, e di CARL DAHLHAUS, Il sentimento del tempo. Citazione musicale e rimembranza nell’«atto di Antonia» de «Les contes d’Hoffmann» >, available here in Italian transl., Venezia, 1994, pp. 17-31 e 35-43: see bibliography in http://www-5.unipv.it/girardi/2023_DM/DM_2023.htm );
SIEGFRIED KRACAUER, Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of his time, New York, Knops, 1938; rptd. 2002;
HEATHER HADLOCK, Return of the repressed: the prima donna from Hoffmann’s Tales to Offenbach’s Contes, «Cambridge Opera Journal», VI/3, 1994, pp. 221-243;
— Mad Loves. Women and Music in Offenbach’s «Les Contes d’Hoffmann», Princeton & Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2000;
Bibliotheca Offenbachiana. Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) eine systematisch-chronologische Bibliographie, ed. by Thomas Schiepperges, Christoph Dohr e Kerstin Rüllke, Köln-Rheinkassel, Verlag Christoph Dohr, 1998.

LORENZO BIANCONI, Introduzione a La drammaturgia musicale, ed by Lorenzo Bianconi, Bologna, il Mulino, 1986, pp. 7-51
LORENZO BIANCONI, GIORGIO PAGANNONE, Piccolo glossario di drammaturgia musicale, da Insegnare il melodramma, ed. by Giorgio Pagannone, Pensa Multimedia, Lecce-Iseo, 2010.

Oral examination: the verification will be carried out in an interview centered on the topics covered in the course.

Lectures, with the help of all the tools of computer science, to propose material in video, diagrams, read and discuss on-line bibliography, musical examples also on the piano.

Italian

During the first lesson the articulation of the course will be presented. Presence is recommended.

Ca ’Foscari applies Italian law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) for the support and accommodation services available to students with disabilities or specific learning disabilities. If you have a motor, visual, hearing or other disability (Law 17/1999) or a specific learning disorder (Law 170/2010) and you require support (classroom assistance, technological aids for carrying out exams or exams individualized, accessible format material, note retrieval, specialist tutoring to support the study, interpreters or other) contact the Disability and DSA office disita@unive.it.

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