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WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Edited by Katherine Scheil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2010

Judith Milhous
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Extract

What might one read for an opera course? I teach an occasional survey that looks at opera in the context of theatre. It is intended to demystify opera for those who have no experience of it but also to explore some nooks and crannies that even fans might not know well. The general layout is chronological, but local production schedules may mean that we start out of order or that there are interruptions. My concern is that students be somewhat prepared when they go to see an opera on the syllabus. Rather than choose warhorses for their own sake, I seek out pieces that offer historical, political, or aesthetic choices that are surprising to many students. Thus, with John Adams's Nixon in China, we also read three plays about Madame Mao. With the intermezzi presented as part of the Medici wedding festivities of 1598, we read one of the plays the intermezzi graced, Bargagli's La pellegrina; for the production process, we read excerpts from James M. Saslow's wonderful 1996 book about the wedding, and so on. I change the overall content to accommodate available productions and to keep the course interesting for me and (I hope) for students. Since I keep an eye out for books that might be useful, this essay combines things I have actually read with things I will consider for the syllabus the next time I teach it.

Type
What Are You Reading?
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 51 , Special Issue 2: Operatic Intersections , November 2010 , pp. 291 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 2010

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References

Endnotes

1. Available on CD as Una “Stravaganza” dei Medici: Intermedi (1589) per “La pellegrina” (EMI CDC 7 47998 2, 1988).

2. Bargagli, Girolamo, The Female Pilgrim (La pellegrina), translated and with an introduction by Ferraro, Bruno (Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1988)Google Scholar.

3. Saslow, James M., The Medici Wedding of 1589: Florentine Festival as Theatrum Mundi (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

4. La Juive, conducted by Vjekoslav Šutej, directed by Günter Krämer for the Wiener Staatsoper, 2003 revival of 1999 production (Deutsche Grammophon 00440 073 4001, 2004).