From Literature to Opera to Film (345-0-1)
Instructors
Linda Austern
847/491-5705
l-austern@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: E-mail instructor to arrange a meeting.
Specialist in Renaissance and baroque musical-cultural relations, gender and feminist theory, European iconography, music as related to visual art and the early history of science. Recipient of major fellowships and research grants, including American Council of Learned Societies, British Academy, Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute (Radcliffe College/Harvard University), and National Endowment for the Humanities. Author, Music in English Children's Drama of the Later Renaissance (Gordon and Breach, 1992), Music in English Life and Thought 1550-1650 (forthcoming); editor, Music, Sensation and Sensuality (Routledge, 2002), editor, Music and the Sirens (Indiana University Press, 2006). Author of numerous articles and reviews in books and such journals as Journal of the American Musicological Society, Modern Philology, Music and Letters, and Renaissance Quarterly.
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 115: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
This course features four operas from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which were based on pre-existing literary or theatrical works, and which, in turn, inspired cinematic or televised works in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. In each case, we will study the literary or theatrical inspiration in its own right (those who can are encouraged to read these classic works in their original languages), become familiar with the opera, and proceed to some famous films and other video adaptations of each opera. We will end the course with a popular 1987 film that is directly based on neither a literary original nor an opera, but relies strongly on conventions from both and features a performance of one of our featured operas.
Registration Requirements
Junior, senior or graduate standing
Learning Objectives
How to evaluate adaptations and think across media
Teaching Method
Lecture-discussion
Evaluation Method
Class participation, short assignments, and a longer paper or project
Class Materials (Required)
Required materials will be accessible through Canvas or on reserve in the University Library
Class Materials (Suggested)
Marcia Citron, Opera on Screen