Selected Topics in Music Literature for Non-Majors (175-0-2)

Topic

Opera and Gender

Instructors

Megan DiGeorgio

Meeting Info

RCMA 1-164: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

Opera and Gender will first introduce students to opera - its characteristics, history, and development over time - and then invite them to engage with the intersection of this artistic form with considerations of gender. Our four main perspectives of inquiry will be: music, narrative, vocalism, and people - audience members, performers, and composers of opera. Students will be able to identify, analyze, and describe ways in which gender impacts and influences elements such as musical material, plot, production, characterization, staging, dramaturgy, and social/cultural context with regards to the operatic form. For the purposes of this course, we will utilize a broad definition of "opera" and examine a wide range of material, comparing how gendered factors function in a variety of compositions, contexts, and time periods, addressing topics from castrati to travesti, works from Antonín Dvořák's The Devil and Kate to Kate Soper's Here Be Sirens, and composers from Francesca Caccini to Sarah Kirkland Snider. Class time will be used for a mix of lecture, listening/watching, analysis, discussion, and active learning, and assignments will mainly consist of reading, listening/watching, and written responses. Because this course will serve as an introduction to the concept of opera as a whole, as well as its relationship to gender, no previous musical experience is necessary.

Class Materials (Required)

None required for purchase. All materials and readings will be provided by the instructor.

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
SoC Additional Distro