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 modern and contemporary ages, giving students the essential 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 ages, giving students the essential 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.

Attending class is strongly recommended.

Registering to the course Aulaweb (activated immediately before lectures start) is strongly recommended in order to obtain information and materials.

Erasmus Students should speak with the instructor as lectures start, in order to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams. Erasmus students not proficient in Italian may request a substitutive bibliography, and take the examination in English, French or German.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Richard Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen: the most ambitious ever project of music theatre

Der Ring des Nibelungen, the most ambitious ever project of music theatre, was staged exactly 150 years ago, in Summer 1876, in Bayreuth, in the opera house which had been especially built for that occasion. Richard Wagner had started it more than a quarter of a century earlier, in the Fall of fatal 1848, in the exalted atmosphere of the revolutionary uprisings, at first as a single opera. The project, centred on the mythical treasure developed by medieval Scandinavian literature, grew step by step counting up to four dramas, strictly connected on a dramatic as much as on a musical level. Wagner wrote first the four texts, from the last to the first, then the music, in the correct order. The project, which was eventually completed in 1874, experienced a complex life, as much as his author’s, who in the meantime wrote masterpieces such as Tristan and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Wagner coherently applied in it the most advanced theories of his revolutionary music-dramatic concept he had been expressing in his theoretical writings such as Opera and drama. Notwithstanding the exceptional scope of time it took to be written and the evolution of Wagner’s philosophical approach, which in the meantime changed from Feuerbach to Schopenhauer, Der Ring des Nibelungen shows in its final result an extraordinary coherence and strength, resulting in one of the grandest and most effective symbolic narrations of European Romanticism, a project of exceptional philosophical standing aiming at proposing a personal and bold idea of society and art, as well as one of the most fascinating sound discourses in the entire history of music theatre.

The sizes of the course (6 or 9 CFU) differ from the levels of analysis, corresponding to the required readings.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Required Readings (9 CFU).

1. The text of the four operas of the Ringa (available in n. 3 of required readings), the recordings of the operas (available on YouTube in several versions) and, only for those who can read music, their scores.
2. L. Zoppelli, Richard Wagner: L’anello del nibelungo, Roma, Carocci, 2025.
3. R. Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen, 2 voll., Programma di sala, Milano, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala, 2026.
4. R. Wagner, Die Walküre, Programma di sala, Milano, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala, 2025 (the essays by J. Maehder, G. Seminaria and G. Satragni).
5. R. Wagner, Siegfried, Programma di sala, Milano, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala, 2025 (the essays by Q. Principe and N. Montenz).
6. R. Wagner, Götterdämmerung, Programma di sala, Milano, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala, 2026 (the essays by P. Misuraca, M. Giani and Q. Principe).
7. Q. Principe, Nascita della musica-cosmo, in Q. Principe, Un wagneriano alla Scala. Saggi scaligeri su Wagner, Strauss, Weber, Mahler, ed. by R. Mellace, Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2025, pp. 97-107.
8. J. Maehder, L'utopia del dramma musicale wagneriano: dal mito attraverso la scenotecnica verso il sogno di un teatro invisibile, in The Staging of Verdi & Wagner Operas, ed. by N. Matsumoto et al., Turnhout, Brepols, 2015, pp. 117-14

N.B.: readings 3 to 8 will be uploaded, after lessons have started, in the course's Aulaweb. N. 2 is available in the Biblioteca Umanistica and in bookshops.

Enrolling in the course's Aulaweb is warmly recommended. 

Alternative readings for English-speaking students:

G.B. Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite. A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring, New York, Dover Publications, 1967.

R. Donington, Wagner's "Ring" and its Symbols. The Music and the Myth, London-Boston, Faber and Faber, 1974.

W. Darcy, Creatio ex nihilo: The Genesis, Structure, and Meaning of the "Rheingold" Prelude, in «19th-Century Music», 13/2 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 79-100.

C. Cusack, Richard Wagner’s ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’: Medieval, Pagan, Modern, in K. Kinane (ed.), Neopagan Medievalisms, special issue of «Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception», 3/ 2 (2013), pp. 329-352.

«La Scala Magazine», Special Edition, Der Ring des Nibelungen, June 2025.

Required Readings are meant both for attending and for not attending students

Required Readings (6 CFU)

1. The text of the four operas of the Ringa (available in n. 3 of required readings), the recordings of the operas (available on YouTube in several versions) and, only for those who can read music, their scores.
2. L. Zoppelli, Richard Wagner: L’anello del nibelungo, Roma, Carocci, 2025.
3. R. Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen, 2 voll., Programma di sala, Milano, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala, 2026.

N.B.: reading n. 3 will be uploaded, after lessons have started, in the course's Aulaweb. N. 2 is available in the Biblioteca Umanistica and in bookshops.

Enrolling in the course's Aulaweb is warmly recommended. 

Alternative readings for English-speaking students:

R. Donington, Wagner's "Ring" and its Symbols. The Music and the Myth, London-Boston, Faber and Faber, 1974.

C. Cusack, Richard Wagner’s ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’: Medieval, Pagan, Modern, in K. Kinane (ed.), Neopagan Medievalisms, special issue of «Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception», 3/ 2 (2013), pp. 329-352.

«La Scala Magazine», Special Edition, Der Ring des Nibelungen, June 2025.

Required Readings are meant both for attending and for not attending students

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

The week starting with 15th February 2027.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral

Erasmus Students should speak with the instructor as lectures start, in order to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams. Erasmus students not proficient in Italian may request a substitutive bibliography, and take the examination in English, French or German.

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.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Enrolling in the course's Aulaweb is warmly recommended.

Erasmus Students should speak with the instructor as lectures start, in order to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams. Erasmus students not proficient in Italian may request a substitutive bibliography, and take the examination in English, French or German.

Students with disabilities or DSAs are reminded that in order to request adaptations in the exam, they must first enter their certification on the University website at servizionline.unige.it in the "Students" section. The documentation will be verified by the University's Services for the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities and DSA Sector (https://rubrica.unige.it/strutture/struttura/100111). Subsequently, at least 7 days before the date of the exam, an e-mail must be sent to the teacher with whom you will take the exam, including in the knowledge copy both the School's Teacher Referent for the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities and with DSA (Prof. Elisabetta Colagrossi: elisabetta.colagrossi@unige.it) and the Sector indicated above. The e-mail should specify: the name of the teaching; the date of the call; the student's last name, first name and roll number; the compensatory tools and dispensatory measures deemed functional; and required.  The contact person will confirm to the lecturer that the applicant is entitled to apply for adaptations in the examination and that these adaptations must be agreed upon with the lecturer. The lecturer will respond by informing whether the requested adaptations can be used. Requests should be sent at least 7 days before the date of the call in order to allow the lecturer(s) to evaluate the content. In particular, in case you intend to make use of maps conceptual maps for the exam (which must be much more concise than the maps used for studying) if the submission does not meet the deadline there will not be the technical time needed to make any changes.