OVERVIEW

The course tackles a musical phenomenon with drama-performance implications at a Master’s level: from opera to the different forms of musical theatre to drama-musical genres bereft of a stage (such as oratorios or passions). The focus therefore is on the meeting point between music and theatre, examining how the different languages (verbal, musical, performative) interact reciprocally giving place to an aesthetic object of value.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to develop awareness of the central questions of musical theatre in its historical development in the modern and contemporary period, giving students the necessary theoretical instruments for a critical evaluation of the interaction between music and theatre in the broader sense of the term.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims at developing – at the level of knowledge – the awareness of the central questions of musical theatre in its historical development in modern and contemporary age, giving students – at the level of abilities - the necessary theoretical instruments for a critical evaluation of the interaction between music and theatre in the broader sense of the term.

6 CFU

At the end of the course students will be able to competently understand the musical theatre phenomena studied in class, remember and aknowledge the contribution of different components that compose the aesthetic object of extreme complexity; he/she will have the tools in order to analyze such complexity and will be able to apply this knowledge in the critical evaluation, also in creative terms, of the meaning that each component brings to the overall dialectic. 

9 CFU

The above mentioned learning outcomes will be achieved on a deeper level of awareness, both in the extent of the context the phenomena discussed are inscribed and in the more detailed analysis of the musico-dramatical questions implied.

PREREQUISITES

Basic knowledge of history of music and theatre in Europe, 17th to 20th centuries.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures with systematic use of audiovisual support: CD, DVD, web.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Young Mozart and Italian Opera: the Salzburg Decade (1771-1781)

One of the greatest opera composers of all times, specially celebrated for his mature masterpieces such as Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute, has been cultivating his theatrical talent confronting himself since his childhood with Italian opera. The course aims at concentrating on a crucial period of the development of Mozart as opera composer: the 1770s, between Mozart’s 15th and 25th birthday, a decade the young composer spent mainly in his birthplace, Salzburg, after the intense period of European travelling. After debuting brilliantly as an opera composer with the three works written for Teatro Regio Ducale in Milano, partly at the beginning of the period we are going to consider, Mozart was able, even if there was no opera house in Salzburg, to confront himself with a variety of theatrical genres which strengthened and developed his theatrical mission. We will consider the works he wrote in side genres such as “azione teatrale” (Il sogno di Scipione) and “azione sacra” (Betulia liberata), and in the main genres of “dramma per musica” (Il re pastore) and “dramma giocoso per musica” (La finta giardiniera), which is to say “opera seria” and “opera buffa”. The last part of the course, reserved to students taking the course for 9 CFU, will be devoted to the opera which stands at the end of this process: Idomeneo re di Creta, the opera commissioned by the Munich Court for Carnival 1781 which meant for the 25-year-old Mozart the conquer of a personal dramaturgy and the definitive awareness of his talent.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography in Italian

For 6 CFU

1. Libretto and CD or DVD recording of Mozart, Il sogno di Scipione, Betulia liberata, Il re pastore, La finta giardiniera.
2. M.H. Schmid, Le opere teatrali di Mozart, Bollati Boringhieri, 2010, pp. 15-23.
3. R. Mellace, Un primo Metastasio per Mozart quindicenne e La musica del «Sogno di Scipione»: una collana di dieci perle, in «Venezia Musica e dintorni», 80, febbraio 2019, pp. 31-40.
4. S. Durante, L’oratorio mozartiano come specchio dei tempi, in «La nostra musica di chiesa è assai differente...». Mozart e la musica sacra italiana, a cura di Rosa Cafiero, Raffaele Mellace e Claudio Toscani, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2018, pp. 47-52.
5. R. Mellace, … la musica, in W.A. Mozart, La finta giardiniera, Milano, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala, 2018, pp. 56-57.
6. A. Chegai, Amori in serra, ivi, pp. 59-75.
7. C. Vitali, «Sarai buon re se buon pastor sarai» e Guida all’ascolto, in «Venezia Musica e dintorni», 81, marzo 2019, pp. 47-55.
8. R. Mellace, “Il re pastore”. Mozart and Hasse Twenty Years Apart, in «Mozart Studien», 25, 2018, pp. 115-131.

N.B.: n. 1 (the opera librettos, not the video or audio files), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are going to be uploaded in Aulaweb after the beginning of the lessons.

N. 2 is available in the DIRAAS library and for sale.

Enrolling in the course's Aulaweb is warmly recommended. 

For 9 CFU

1. Libretto and CD or DVD recording of Mozart, Il sogno di Scipione, Betulia liberata, Il re pastore, La finta giardiniera, Idomeneo re di Creta.
2. M.H. Schmid, Le opere teatrali di Mozart, Bollati Boringhieri, 2010, pp. 15-23, 55-61.
3. R. Mellace, Un primo Metastasio per Mozart quindicenne e La musica del «Sogno di Scipione»: una collana di dieci perle, in «Venezia Musica e dintorni», 80, febbraio 2019, pp. 31-40.
4. S. Durante, L’oratorio mozartiano come specchio dei tempi, in «La nostra musica di chiesa è assai differente...». Mozart e la musica sacra italiana, a cura di Rosa Cafiero, Raffaele Mellace e Claudio Toscani, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2018, pp. 47-52.
5. R. Mellace, … la musica, in W.A. Mozart, La finta giardiniera, Milano, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala, 2018, pp. 56-57.
6. A. Chegai, Amori in serra, ivi, pp. 59-75.
7. C. Vitali, «Sarai buon re se buon pastor sarai» e Guida all’ascolto, in «Venezia Musica e dintorni», 81, marzo 2019, pp. 47-55.
8. R. Mellace, “Il re pastore”. Mozart and Hasse Twenty Years Apart, in «Mozart Studien», 25, 2018, pp. 115-131.
9. P. Gallarati, La forza delle parole. Mozart drammaturgo, Torino, Einaudi, 1993, pp. 71-271.

La rimanente bibliografia è disponibile presso la biblioteca del DIRAAS e/o in commercio.

N.B.: n. 1 (the opera librettos, not the video or audio files), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are going to be uploaded in Aulaweb after the beginning of the lessons.

N. 2 and n. 9 are available in the DIRAAS library and for sale.

Enrolling in the course's Aulaweb is warmly recommended. 

The teacher is available to discuss the preparation for students willing to study in a language other than Italian.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

RAFFAELE MELLACE (President)

DAVIDE MINGOZZI

GIADA ROBERTA VIVIANI (Substitute)

LESSONS

Class schedule

MUSICAL DRAMATURGY

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exam consists of an assessment of the contents of the course and the bibliography. Knowledge of the authors, genre and historical-cultural context of the works treated in the course programme. The evaluation will consider knowledge of the programme (topics tackled in lectures, readings indicated in the bibliography, material made available on Aulaweb, mandatory or optional operas), as well as presentation ability, use of specific lexicon and capacity for critical reworking.

Exam schedule