Musical Dramaturgy
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The course develops students' aptitude to understand and interpret different kinds of music in different music genres and media contexts (theatre music, opera, cinema, etc.). It also aims to encourage them to develop what we could call a "dramaturgical listening" or, to say it in other words, a "dramaturgical awareness" of how music can contribute to define characters, generate action, establish atmosphere (etc.) in a broad range of dramatic genres and media.
The main learning scope of the course of musical dramaturgy/dramaturgy of sound is to enable students to relate their musical ear with the listening to music in an intermedial environment.
The main learning scope of the course of musical dramaturgy/dramaturgy of sound is to enable students to relate their musical ear with the listening to music in an intermedial environment.
Expected learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to understand the dramatic functions of music in theatre, opera, cinema, etc., with reference to the monographic subject explored each new academic year.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Course Title:
The Mediatization of Opera.
Opera is an intermedial artform that has remediated the medium of music (vocal and instrumental) with the medium of dramatic literature (libretto) as well as the medium of operatic staging. The course seeks to address how old and new technologies (phonography, telephone, radio, cinema, vinyl LP, television, internet) have come to influence operatic staging practices in more or less recent years.
The Mediatization of Opera.
Opera is an intermedial artform that has remediated the medium of music (vocal and instrumental) with the medium of dramatic literature (libretto) as well as the medium of operatic staging. The course seeks to address how old and new technologies (phonography, telephone, radio, cinema, vinyl LP, television, internet) have come to influence operatic staging practices in more or less recent years.
Prerequisites for admission
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the course, students need a basic knowledge of the music, opera, theatre, and cinema history. So, it is advisable that students choose Musical Dramaturgy after having attended two or three of the afore mentioned courses.
Teaching methods
The course is based on class lectures which are integrated by bibliographic and multimedia teaching materials uploaded to the Teams platform. The classes will alternate theoretical and historical overviewes with analysis and collective discussions of the treated case studies.
Teaching Resources
Recommended reference book:
- Emilio Sala, Opera, neutro plurale. Glossario per melomani del XXI secolo, Milano: il Saggiatore 2024.
Part I (Filmed Opera)
- Emanuele Senici, "In the Score": Music and Media in the Discourse of Operatic Mise-en-scène, in The Opera Quarterly, vol. 35, fasc. 3, 2019, pp. 207-223 (available on unimi website).
- Emanuele Senici, Filmare l'aria: Franco Enriquez, Francesco Rosi, Peter Sellars, in La musica fra testo, performance e media, a cura di A. Cecchi, Roma: NeoClassica, 2019, pp. 195-218.
- Estela Ibáñez-García, Displaying the Magician's Art: Theatrical Illusion in Ingmar Bergman's "The Magic Flute" (1975), in Cambridge Opera Journal, XXXIII/3 (2021), pp. 191-211 (available on unimi website).
For this first part on filmed opera, students need to study these films and videos:
- Giuseppe Verdi, La traviata, TV broadcasting (1954), directed by Franco Enriquez (available on YouTube)
- Georges Bizet, Carmen, film-opera (1984), directed by Francesco Rosi (DVD)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Trollflöjten (Il flauto magico) (1975), directed by Ingmar Bergman (DVD)
- Georg Friedrich Händel, Theodora (1996), directed by Peter Sellars (DVD)
Parte II (Opera and Cinema)
- Matteo Giuggioli, Le forme dell'opera nel cinema. Sull'impiego cinematografico del "Trovatore" tra Gallone e Visconti, in La musica fra testo, performance e media, a cura di A. Cecchi, Roma: NeoClassica, 2019, pp. 339-355.
- Jacob-Evan Eidt, Aesthetics, Opera, and Alterity in Herzog's Work, in Comparative Literature and Culture, XIV/1 (2012), pp. 2-9 (available on unimi website)
- Matteo Giuggioli, L'eredità musicale verdiana alle origini del cinema di Bernardo Bertolucci, in Comunicazioni sociali, XXXII/1 (2011), pp. 102-112 (available on unimi website)
For this second part on the association between opera and cinema, students need to study these films and videos:
- Carmine Gallone, Il trovatore (1949), cinematic transposition of Verdi's opera (available on YouTube)
- Luchino Visconti, Senso (1954) (DVD)
- Bernardo Bertolucci, Prima della rivoluzione (1964) (DVD)
- Bernardo Bertolucci, Strategia del ragno (1970) (DVD)
- Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo (1982) (DVD)
Parte III (Intermediality)
- Emilio Sala, "I due timidi" di Nino Rota. Un'opera intermediale a cavallo fra radio, cinema, teatro e televisione, in Nino Rota: un timido protagonista del Novecento musicale, a cura di Francesco Lombardi, Torino: EDT, 2012, pp. 125-148.
- Jean Cocteau, La voix humaine, a cura di Filippo Annunziata, Pisa: ETS, 2021, "Dentro il testo", pp. 9-26.
- Jessica Tsun Lem Hui, Reconfiguring Voice in "The End": Virtuosity, Technological Affordance and the Reversibility of Hatsune Miku in the Intermundane, in Cambridge Opera Journal, XXXIV/3 (2022), pp. 364-379 (available on the unimi website)
For this third part on opera and intermediality, students need to study these films and videos:
- Nino Rota, I due timidi (1950), radio broadcasting (available on YouTube)
- Francis Poulenc, La voix humaine, television film (1971), directed by Dominique Delouche (utilizing the 1959 original recording) (DVD)
- Shibuya Keīchirō, The End (2013), vocaloid opera, performed by Hatsune Miku (available on YouTube).
- Emilio Sala, Opera, neutro plurale. Glossario per melomani del XXI secolo, Milano: il Saggiatore 2024.
Part I (Filmed Opera)
- Emanuele Senici, "In the Score": Music and Media in the Discourse of Operatic Mise-en-scène, in The Opera Quarterly, vol. 35, fasc. 3, 2019, pp. 207-223 (available on unimi website).
- Emanuele Senici, Filmare l'aria: Franco Enriquez, Francesco Rosi, Peter Sellars, in La musica fra testo, performance e media, a cura di A. Cecchi, Roma: NeoClassica, 2019, pp. 195-218.
- Estela Ibáñez-García, Displaying the Magician's Art: Theatrical Illusion in Ingmar Bergman's "The Magic Flute" (1975), in Cambridge Opera Journal, XXXIII/3 (2021), pp. 191-211 (available on unimi website).
For this first part on filmed opera, students need to study these films and videos:
- Giuseppe Verdi, La traviata, TV broadcasting (1954), directed by Franco Enriquez (available on YouTube)
- Georges Bizet, Carmen, film-opera (1984), directed by Francesco Rosi (DVD)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Trollflöjten (Il flauto magico) (1975), directed by Ingmar Bergman (DVD)
- Georg Friedrich Händel, Theodora (1996), directed by Peter Sellars (DVD)
Parte II (Opera and Cinema)
- Matteo Giuggioli, Le forme dell'opera nel cinema. Sull'impiego cinematografico del "Trovatore" tra Gallone e Visconti, in La musica fra testo, performance e media, a cura di A. Cecchi, Roma: NeoClassica, 2019, pp. 339-355.
- Jacob-Evan Eidt, Aesthetics, Opera, and Alterity in Herzog's Work, in Comparative Literature and Culture, XIV/1 (2012), pp. 2-9 (available on unimi website)
- Matteo Giuggioli, L'eredità musicale verdiana alle origini del cinema di Bernardo Bertolucci, in Comunicazioni sociali, XXXII/1 (2011), pp. 102-112 (available on unimi website)
For this second part on the association between opera and cinema, students need to study these films and videos:
- Carmine Gallone, Il trovatore (1949), cinematic transposition of Verdi's opera (available on YouTube)
- Luchino Visconti, Senso (1954) (DVD)
- Bernardo Bertolucci, Prima della rivoluzione (1964) (DVD)
- Bernardo Bertolucci, Strategia del ragno (1970) (DVD)
- Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo (1982) (DVD)
Parte III (Intermediality)
- Emilio Sala, "I due timidi" di Nino Rota. Un'opera intermediale a cavallo fra radio, cinema, teatro e televisione, in Nino Rota: un timido protagonista del Novecento musicale, a cura di Francesco Lombardi, Torino: EDT, 2012, pp. 125-148.
- Jean Cocteau, La voix humaine, a cura di Filippo Annunziata, Pisa: ETS, 2021, "Dentro il testo", pp. 9-26.
- Jessica Tsun Lem Hui, Reconfiguring Voice in "The End": Virtuosity, Technological Affordance and the Reversibility of Hatsune Miku in the Intermundane, in Cambridge Opera Journal, XXXIV/3 (2022), pp. 364-379 (available on the unimi website)
For this third part on opera and intermediality, students need to study these films and videos:
- Nino Rota, I due timidi (1950), radio broadcasting (available on YouTube)
- Francis Poulenc, La voix humaine, television film (1971), directed by Dominique Delouche (utilizing the 1959 original recording) (DVD)
- Shibuya Keīchirō, The End (2013), vocaloid opera, performed by Hatsune Miku (available on YouTube).
Assessment methods and Criteria
The assessment procedure consists of an oral exam on the topics developed during the course, by mark expressed on a scale from a minimum of 18 (the threshold to pass the exam) to the maximum of 30 (cum laude).
Unita' didattica A
L-ART/07 - MUSICOLOGY AND HISTORY OF MUSIC - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
L-ART/07 - MUSICOLOGY AND HISTORY OF MUSIC - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
L-ART/07 - MUSICOLOGY AND HISTORY OF MUSIC - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
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