8 January     1. Introduction: Topic, resources, Italian versification

15 January   2. A representative work: Una cosa rara

22 January   3. Repertory: Overview, season, individual works (sources, resources)

29 January   4. Character types and aria types. Guest: John Platoff

5 February   5. Singers. Guest: Dorothea Link
 

12 February 6. Schemata. Guest: John Rice
 

19 February 7. Topics

26 February 8. Derivative works

5 March       9. Stage settings

[SPRING BREAK]

19 March   10. Tonality                  

26 March   11. Revisions and substitutions. Guest: John Platoff

2 April       12. Paper conferences

9 April       13. Figaro in context

16 April     14. Presentations  1. Lindsay            2. Meredith           3. Masha                4. Miguel

23 April     15. Presentations  5. Molly               6. Travis               7. Nathan               8. Emily

TOPIC

The 1786-87 season at the Vienna court theater as a starting point for the study of late eighteenth-century opera.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Prof. Daniel R. Melamed    M325C, dmelamed (AT) indiana.edu
Office hours: By appointment (e-mail to arrange). E-mail questions are welcome at any time.

Course information, assignments, reserve lists and this schedule can be found at http://dmelamed.pages.iu.edu/M602-Figaro-2019.htm, also reachable through  http://figaro.melamed.org.

REQUIREMENTS

• Class attendance/participation. Seminar members are expected to attend every meeting; please do not schedule conflicting activities. Religious commitments and serious illness are ordinarily the only acceptable reasons for missing a meeting; please let the instructor know beforehand by e-mail. Members of the seminar are expected to participate actively in discussions and to be fully prepared to do so every time.
   
• Assignments for each meeting. Most meetings will be led (in shorter or longer segments) by members of the seminar based on assignments carried out beforehand in consultation with the instructor.
   
• Final paper and presentation. The last meetings will be devoted to presentations by members of the seminar. At the first meeting we will establish dates for the presentations, which will be based on research papers circulated in advance. Completed papers will be due in electronic form for circulation one week before the date of  presentations.

GRADING

The course grade will be based on presentations, participation and the final paper. There will be no examinations.

SEMINAR MEMBERS

Miguel Arango Calle

Molly Covington

Masha Fokina

Daniel R. Melamed

Meredith Rigby

Emily Lamb Truell

Lindsay Weaver

Travis Whaley

Nathan Wright

RESOURCES

The season, with sources and resources

Dorothea Link. The National Court Theatre in Mozart's Vienna: Sources and Documents, 1783-1792. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. [ML1723.8.V6 L56] [carrel 2-018]

Performance calendar 1786-87        Introduction

Account books 1786-87

Zinzendorf diary 1786-87                 Introduction

Otto Michtner. Das alte Burgtheater als Opernbühne. Von d. Einführung des deutschen Singspiels bis zum Tod Kaiser Leopolds II. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1970. [ML1723.8.V6 B9]

John Rice. Antonio Salieri and Viennese Opera. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998. [ML410.S165 R53] [online]

Mary Hunter. The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna: a Poetics of Entertainment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. [online] [ML1723.8.V6 H86]

Dexter Edge. "Mozart's Viennese Copyists." Ph.D. dissertation USC, 2004. [8262640 v. 1-3] [online]

Franz Hadamowsky. Die Wiener Hoftheater (Staatstheater) 1776-1966. Verzeichnis der aufgeführten Stücke mit Bestandsnachweis und täglichen Spielplan. Vienna: Prachner, 1966. [ALF PN2616.V5 H3 v.1,pt.1]

Claudio Sartori. I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800: catalogo analitico con 16 indici. 7 vols. Cuneo: Bertola & Locatelli, 1990-c1994. [Ref ML136.A1 S27]

Dorothea Link. Arias for Francesco Benucci, Mozart's first Figaro and Guglielmo. Recent researches in the music of the Classical Era 72. Middleton: A-R Editions, c2004. [Ref M2 .R286 v. 72]

[Storace RRMCE 66]

[Calvesi RRMCE 84]

[Mandini RRMCE 97]

ASSIGNMENTS

1. Introducion

On Italian versification:

Robert Anthony Moreen. "Integration of text forms and musical forms in Verdi's early operas." Ph.D. diss. Princeton, 1975. Pp. 9-22.

Tim Carter. "Verse and Music in Le nozze di Figaro." In W. A. Mozart. Le nozze di Figaro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. 75-87.

Summary of the principles of Italian versification.

On numbers in Le nozze di Figaro

Figaro arias by character

Figaro Act II finale--outline

2. V. Martin y Soler, Una cosa rara

Original libretto: A-Wn

Libretto and English translation: Act I    Act II

Recording:  J. Savall   Newstone (excerpts)

Scores (on reserve): M1500.M368 C7 I5, M1503 .M377 C67, and M1500.M368 C7

Synopsis (New Grove, by D. Link)

Outline

Everyone:

1. Listen to the opera; study its libretto; analyze the poetry of its set numbers; and please read this article:

          John Platoff. "A new history for Martín's Una cosa rara." Journal of Musicology 12 (1994): 85-115.

Topics for individual pursuit, with some starting points for reading:

Arias--types and characters

A model for documenting arias by character is above (for Le nozze di Figaro).

    Mary Hunter. The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna: a Poetics of Entertainment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. [online] [ML1723.8.V6 H86]

John Platoff. "The buffa aria in Mozart's Vienna." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 99-120.

Arias--analysis

James Webster. "The analysis of Mozart's arias." In Mozart Studies, edited by Cliff Eisen, 101-199. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

Finales

A model for outlining finales is above (for Le nozze di Figaro).

John Platoff. "Musical and Dramatic Structure in the Opera Buffa Finale."  Journal of Musicology 7 (1989): 191-230.

 

John Platoff. "Tonal organization in 'buffo' finales and the Act II finale of 'Le Nozze di Figaro.'" Music and Letters 72 (1991): 387-403.

Vienna cast and 1786-87 performance calendar

Resources for identifying singers and documenting the season's performances are in Link, National Court Theatre (calendar, information from Theaterzettel, Zinzendorf). On some of the principal singers you can consult Link's RRMCE volumes; Grove Online has good articles on many.

Plot/overall organization

     Andrew Steptoe. "Da Ponte and the buffa plot." In The Mozart-Da Ponte operas. The cultural and musical background to Le noze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte." Pp. 98-120.

     Daniel Heartz. "Goldoni, Don Giovanni, and the dramma giocoso." In Mozart's Operas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Pp. 194-205.

Productions to 1800

The Sartori libretto catalogue is a starting point for documenting performance history. Some librettos are available online (Schatz collection, A-Wn, etc.); these could be the basis for comparison as case studies.

Reception

Vienna newspapers are available online here, with a searchable index. There are numerous musical publications of individual numbers, arrangements, extracts, etc. from the opera's first years; Worldcat is a starting point, as is RISM. If your German is strong, this contemporary critical pamphlet on Una cosa rara does not appear to have been dealt with.

Canons

There are two canonic numbers in the opera; this was a popular type, discussed in

Dorothea Link. "The Viennese Operatic Canon and Mozart's Così fan tutte." Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum 38 (1991), 111–121.

Ensembles

The question of appropriate musical analysis of ensemble numbers has focused on ensembles.
      James Webster. "Mozart's operas and the myth of musical unity." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 197-218. [p. 204ff on ensembles]

      Tim Carter. "Opera buffa and the Classical Style: The Act I trio." In W. A. Mozart. Le nozze di Figaro. Pp. 88-104. [on Figaro, No. 7]
 

      Charles Rosen. The Classical style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Pp. 288-296. [on Figaro, No. 18]

     Tim Carter. "Mozart, Da Ponte and the Ensemble: Methods in Progress?" In Wolfgang Amadè Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, 241-249, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Other topics

Feel free to propose topics you would like to pursue.

3. Repertory

For each of your assigned operas (see below), please compile

--Genre designation in the sources

--A brief performance history in the eighteenth century, especially performances before Vienna (if any)

--Performance history in Vienna--seasons and performances in the 1786-87 season

--An overview of textual and musical sources relevant to the Vienna performances (and others as necessary)

--A brief synopsis

--An outline of musical numbers as presented in Vienna (use the outline of Una cosa rara above as a model)

Please type all this up as a Word document that can be circulated to members of the seminar.

Starting points are in the season, with sources and resources.

4. Character types and aria types. Guest: John Platoff

--On aria and character types, please read

John Platoff. "The buffa aria in Mozart's Vienna." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 99-120.

 

and the relevant sections of

         Mary Hunter. The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna: a Poetics of Entertainment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. [online] [ML1723.8.V6 H86]

  --Make a detailed table of arias in "your" two operas by character; a model is here. Analyze the poetic organization of the arias.

  --Sort out the cast of the two operas by character type and by musical tendencies. Relate this to the plot and topic of the operas.

  --Prepare a relevant and interesting example for presentation, including text; bring a recording if possible. Consider instrumentation, musical topic, aria form, and so on.

Please type up relevant material as a Word document that can be circulated to members of the seminar.

5. Singers. Guest: Dorothea Link

--On singers, please read the introductions to these four volumes by Dorothea Link, focusing on the methodological issues involved in studying singers by arias written for them.

Dorothea Link. Arias for Francesco Benucci, Mozart's first Figaro and Guglielmo. Recent researches in the music of the Classical Era 72. Middleton: A-R Editions, c2004. [Ref M2 .R286 v. 72]  

[Storace RRMCE 66] [Calvesi RRMCE 84] [Mandini RRMCE 97]

Introductions are available here:  Storace  Benucci   Calvesi   Mandini

--Determine, to the extent possible, the Vienna 1786-87 casts of your two operas. Resources for identifying singers and documenting the season's performances are in Link, National Court Theatre (calendar, information from Theaterzettel, Zinzendorf). On some of the principal singers you can consult Link's RRMCE volumes; Grove Online has good articles on many. Michtner sometimes adds information, though often without citation. Perhaps you can turn up other sources.  Write up your results as annotated cast lists; come prepared to give brief presentations on what you found, how, and with what degree of certainty.

6. Schemata. Guest: John Rice

--Please read chapters 1-7 of this book, then browse each of the following chapters that introduce other schemata. Appendix A on prototypes might be useful.

Robert O. Gjerdingen. Music in the Galant Style. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. [ML240.3 .G39 ]  [online] [audio examples here]

--Choose a schema that interests you (not necessarily from the first 7 chapters). Prepare a brief presentation on it--defining it, talking briefly about the examples in the book, and presenting examples from Salieri, La grotta di Trofonio. [Score here; recording here] Include a consideration of how the schema is used in relation to the drama and to character and musical types. Make sure you have clear and easily presentable examples.

--Please read this article:

John A. Rice. "Voice-Leading Schemata and Sentences in Opera Buffa: Rising Lines in Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. [online]

We will discuss the examples in detail. [Paisiello score here and on reserve; recording here] It will pay to familiarize yourself with the opera.

7. Topics

--Please read

Leonard Ratner. Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style. New York: Schirmer Books, 1980. Pp. 1-30.

Wye Jamison Allanbrook. Rhythmic gesture in Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro & Don Giovanni. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapters 7 & 8.

Danuta Mirka, "Introduction" and Mary Hunter, "Topics and Opera Buffa." In The Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory ed. Danuta Mirka. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

--Investigate the use of topics in one of our operas other than Le nozze di Figaro. (You may but are not required to examine one of "your" operas, but please let everyone know what piece you are working on.) Prepare a brief presentation, with examples.

8. Derivative works

For our next meeting we will investigate musical works derived from our season's repertory--excerpts, individual arias, aria arrangements (voice/guitar, etc.), Harmonie arrangements, string quartet arrangements, variations, sonatas, keyboard arrangements (2h/4h), and so on.

1. Study Johann Nepomuk Wendt's Harmonie arrangement of music from Le nozze di Figaro. Recordings of various movements here and here and here, score here. Choose a number and analyze its derivation from the original. E-mail your choice of number; prepare a very short summary of the derivation.

2. Choose an opera from our repertory, perhaps starting with the work you investigated this week. (Send a note around if you are thinking of pursuing a different piece.)

First, get bibliographic control over derivative works--as completely as you can , even if you do not have access to all the items. You need not restrict yourself to Vienna. Places to start:

RISM (both the OPAC and printed volumes)
Worldcat
Major library catalogues (BL, ÕNB, Berlin, etc.)
Publishers' catalogues (Artaria, Broderip, etc.)
Thematic catalogues/critical editions
Whistling, Handbuch der musikalischen Literatur

Then choose one item (collection, if applicable) you have access to and prepare a presentation on its derivation and significance. Transcribe or score up as necessary. What is it? What was its intended audience/purchaser and use? What material from the opera was chosen? Arranged how? For instrumental arrangements, how did vocal-instrumental pieces become instrumental only, with what consequences? What can be learned from the derived work about the reception and understanding of the opera?

Please keep everyone posted about your choice so we can try for the broadest range of derived pieces.

9. Stage settings

We will investigate the settings of our season's operas on the stage.

1. Please read chapter 8, "Theaters and stage design" in

John A. Rice. Mozart on the Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. [ML410.M9 R538 2009]

2.  Examine the libretto of your operas; transcribe the descriptions of the stage settings in this format. Work out a likely alternation of half and full stages. Load this as a Word document to our Box folder. Note any features of the libretto that add detail to the descriptions (like a closet characters hide in, windows they jump out of, etc.).

          Da Ponte/Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro

         La Scena si rappresenta nel Castello de Conte di Almaviva

If we do not have a contemporary Viennese libretto, consult libretti from other places. Do this even if we do have a Viennese libretto; determine whether stage settings are stable from theater to theater, or were altered. Prepare a short presentation.

3. Examine the musical setting in relation to the stage settings. How, if at all, are new settings introduced? With what kinds of music? In what sorts of numbers?

4. Using the calendars in Link, make a list of the Italian opera repertory performed at the Burgtheater during one theater season assigned below. Find as many Viennese librettos as you can; note that some might be from other seasons. Transcribe the stage settings, as above, into a Word document. If you find an online copy of a libretto, please include a link to it. If you find a libretto transcription that looks as though it might be taken from an original Viennese libretto (like some at http://www.librettidopera.it), include it but make a note of the source. Load what you find into our Box folder; we can make a new folder for stage settings.

83-84 MAC

84-85 MC

85-86 MF

86-87 LW

87-88 ELT

88-89 TW

89-90 MR

90-91 NW

91-92 DRM

10. Tonality

We will investigate the tonal analysis of late 18th-century opera at various levels.

1. Please read the following on the analysis of ensembles. Come prepared to discuss the pieces cited. Pair up by group e-mail to lead discussions of one of: Le nozze di Figaro No. 7 "Cosa sento, tosto andate, No. 19 "Riconosci in questo amplesso," Don Giovanni No. 15 "Ah taci, ingiusto core," or No. 19 "Sola, sola in bujo loco."

Tim Carter. "Opera buffa and the Classical Style: The Act I trio." In W. A. Mozart. Le nozze di Figaro.
  

Charles Rosen. "Comic Opera." In The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Pp. 288-325

John Platoff. "Operatic ensembles and the problem of the Don Giovanni sextet." In Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna, edited by Mary Hunter and James Webster, 378-405. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Tim Carter. "Mozart, Da Ponte and the Ensemble: Methods in Progress?" In Wolfgang Amadè Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, 241-249, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

2. Read the relevant literature below on tonal analysis of arias, finales, or entire operas. Apply the methods discussed to repertory from our season; be prepared to present an example; let everyone know by e-mail what topic and work you are pursuing.

Arias

James Webster. "The analysis of Mozart's arias." In Mozart Studies, edited by Cliff Eisen, 101-199. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

John Platoff. "The buffa aria in Mozart's Vienna." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 99-120.

James Webster. "Understanding opera buffa: analysis = interpretation." In Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna, edited by Mary Hunter and James Webster, 340-377. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

James Webster. "Mozart's operas and the myth of musical unity." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 197-218. [Introduction and portion on arias, through p. 204]

Carl Schachter. "The adventures of an F#. Tonal narration and exhortation in Donna Anna's first-act recitative and aria." In Unfoldings: Essays in Schenkerian Theory and Analysis, 221-35. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Julian Rushton. “Buffo roles in Mozart’s Vienna: tessitura and tonality as signs of characterization.” In Opera buffa in Mozart's Vienna, edited by Mary Hunter and James Webster, 406-25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Finales

John Platoff. "Tonal Organization in the Opera Buffa of Mozart's Time." In Mozart Studies 2, ed. Cliff Eisen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Pp. 139-174.

Alfred Lorenz. "Das Finale in Mozarts Meisteropern." Die Musik 19 (1926-27): 622-32.

Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker. "Dismembering Mozart." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 187-195.

Entire operas

John Platoff. "Tonal Organization in the Opera Buffa of Mozart's Time." In Mozart Studies 2, ed. Cliff Eisen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Pp. 139-174.

Daniel Heartz. "Tonality and Motif in Idomeneo." Musical Times 115 (1974): 382-386.

 11. Revisions and substitutions. Guest: John Platoff

We will explore revisions and substitutions as operas traveled.

1. Please read the following essay, noting the author's request that it is for the seminar's use only. Examine some substitions in sources available to us.

John Platoff. "Sarti’s Fra i due litiganti and Opera in Vienna." Unpublished paper.

      Read this essay on the substitution.

Roger Parker. "Ersatz Ditties: Adriana Ferrarese’s Susanna." In Remaking the song: operatic visions and revisions from Handel to Berio. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Pp. 42-66.  ML1700 .P32

And this essay on a further complication with respect to "Deh, vieni." A reconstruction of Mozart's draft by Charles Mackerras is here.

John Platoff. "'Non tardar amato bene' Completed. But Not by Mozart." Musical Times 132, (1991): 557-560.

3. For another sort of re-use of material, have a look at the libretto of L'ape musicale, a pastiche assembled by Da Ponte and performed as a benefit at the Burgtheater in 1789. Several of our operas are implicated. Chapter 5 of this book discusses the work.

Ian Woodfield. Cabals and satires: Mozart's comic operas in Vienna. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. [New Book Area ML410.M9 W917]

4. Prepare a short presentation on a replacement or substitution in one of our (non-Figaro) operas, either originating elsewhere and presented in Vienna, or written for Vienna and produced somewhere else.

12. Paper conferences

13. Figaro in context

 Choose an aspect of Le nozze di Figaro and prepare a presentation that examines it in the context of the season repertory we have studied. You can choose an aria or ensemble, stage settings, a character and aria type, musical topics, schemata, singers--anything you like that engages the opera and discusses it in relation to the pieces and conventions we have discussed. Please avoid a duplication of your paper/project. Please let everyone know by e-mail what you are doing as soon as you decide.