MUSICAL DRAMATURGY

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

FLT030

Academic Year of enrolment:

2022

Year of supply:

2022/2023

Type of Course:

Related/Supplementary

Degree:

Course of 2nd Cycle Degree in PHILOLOGY, LINGUISTICS AND LITERARY TRADITIONS

Disciplinary Sector:

Musicology and Music History

Location:

CHIETI

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

PAGANNONE Giorgio

Cycle:

Second semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

108

Prerequisites:

No prerequisites are required, apart from a basic knowledge of the Italian metrics.
We recommend the following support and in-depth tools (optional).
For the rudiments of Italian metrics and the relationship between music and versification:
- Avviamento alla metrica italiana, ed. by T. BALBO, L. BIANCONI and N. BADOLATO, (on-line in powerpoint format:
http://archivi.dar.unibo.it/files/muspe/wwcat/corso/corsi/sdm/metrica1%2...
http://box.dar.unibo.it/files/didattica/Metrica%204%205%206%20NB.ppt).
- P. FABBRI, Metro e canto nell'opera italiana, Torino, EDT, 2007, pp. 119-141 (chap. 10).

For the melodramatic vocabulary and musical dramaturgy:
- L. BIANCONI - G. PAGANNONE, Piccolo glossario di drammaturgia musicale, in G. PAGANNONE (ed. by), Insegnare il melodramma. Saperi essenziali, proposte didattiche, Lecce, Pensa Multimedia, 2010, pp. 201-263 (available online: http://box.dar.unibo.it/files/didattica/Glossario-di-Drammaturgia_musica...).

Non-attending students, and students who have not taken the Storia della musica moderna e contemporanea (History of modern and contemporary music) exam in the triennial course are advised to read the following text:
- F. DELLA SETA, “Italia e Francia nell’Ottocento”, Torino, EDT, 1991 («Storia della musica», 9), pp. 68-75 (“Morfologia dell’opera italiana”).

Objectives

The teaching contributes to the achievement of the learning objectives of the Degree course, with particular reference to the following abilities:

Skills and understanding
Knowledge of the features of the history of the opera and of the fundamentals of musical dramaturgy, with particular reference to the nineteenth century Italian melodrama and Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti.
Knowledge of some issues concerning operatic philology (variants, genesis, tradition).
Knowledge of the metric forms used in nineteenth-century opera.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Acquisition of a method of analysis of the melodrama, as an integrated system of text, music and scene.
Ability to recognize and reconstruct the metric form of an opera libretto, and more generally the morphology of a nineteenth-century opera, with reference to the opera in question.
Ability to compare the libretto to the literary source, highlighting links and differences.

Indipendence of judgment
At the end of the course students will have acquired some technical notions, and the conceptual tools that will enable them to deal autonomously and critically with an operatic text, intended as a combination of poetry, music and drama. They will also be able to grasp the relationships that the librettistic text, as a "derivative" text, has with the literary or theatrical hypotext.

Communication skills
Students must know how to explain the course contents and key concepts with appropriate and clear terms. They will be able to report in a satisfactory way also the listening experiences, both in class and during their individual study. They will also be able to describe and analyse an operatic scene using the appropriate vocabulary.

Contents

The romantic Opera: "Maria Stuarda" by Giuseppe Bardari and Gaetano Donizetti.

Extended Syllabus

Central work of the mature period by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), "Maria Stuarda" had a genesis and a complicated initial career due to censorship, which did not look favorably on the representation of a regicide and the epic clash of two queens (Elizabeth and Mary). Inspired by the tragedy of Schiller, “Maria Stuart” (1800), albeit through the Italian translation by Andrea Maffei (1830), the work was composed in Naples for the Teatro S. Carlo in 1834, but prohibited before the performance, then changed into "Buondelmonte", and then finally represented with the real title at the Scala in Milan in 1835, with the famous soprano Maria Malibran in the title role. The historical figure of Mary Queen of Scotland of the Catholic faith, led to the gallows by her cousin Elizabeth I of England, of the Protestant faith, boasts a long tradition of literary, theatrical, melodramatic and cinematographic transpositions.
The course, after an extensive introduction on the philology of librettos, musical dramaturgy and the morphology of nineteenth-century opera, aims to analyze in detail the work in question, highlighting the relationships between text, music and scene, as well as the relationships between the libretto and its dramatic source, with a look at other contemporary operas on the same subject. It will also shed light on the troubled genesis and on the various versions of the opera.

Recommended Bibliography

On the 'libretto':
L. BIANCONI, “Il libretto d’opera”, in “Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero. Musica”, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Roma, 2017, pp. 187-208.
On the musical dramaturgy:
- C. DAHLHAUS, Drammaturgia dell'opera italiana, Torino, EDT, 2005 (or alternatively: G. STAFFIERI, Un teatro tutto cantato, Roma, Carocci, 2012).

For a historical overview of Donizetti and his dramaturgy:
L. ZOPPELLI. Gaetano Donizetti, in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero. Musica, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2018, pp. 421-432.

On ‘Maria Stuarda’ by Bardari and Donizetti (INDICATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: the texts to be studied will be specified at the beginning of the course):
- W. ASHBROOK, Donizetti. Le opere, Torino, EDT, 1987, pp. 130-136.
- A. TAVILLA, L’immagine di Maria Stuarda nel melodramma italiano del primo Ottocento, in “Tra ragione e pazzia”. Saggi di esegesi, storiografia e drammaturgia musicale in onore di Fabrizio Della Seta, a cura di F. Rovelli, C. Vellutini e C. Panti, Pisa, ETS, 2021, pp. 405-421.
- L. BIANCONI, "Lo scacchiere e le due regine", in Maria Stuarda, programma di sala, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, stagione 1993/94, pp. 13-28.
- "Maria Stuarda", "Quaderni della Fondazione Donizetti" n. 31, 2012.
- “Maria Stuarda”, volume di sala, Venezia, Teatro La Fenice, 2009.
NON-ATTENDING students are advised to contact the teacher for additional readings.

To follow the lessons it is necessary to have the LIBRETTO of the opera. A copy of the libretto of the first performance will be made available at the
beginning of the course.
NB. Do not use other librettos available online or in CD booklets.
The vocal score of the opera can be found at the following website: .
NB. THE FULL LISTENING AND THE VISION of the opera in question is an INTEGRAL PART OF THE PROGRAMME.
NB. Material will be provided during the course. NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS are required to find the study material. For any problems or doubts concerning the bibliography and the retrieval of the
materials, please contact the teacher (giorgio.pagannone@unich.it).

Teaching Methods

A mixed method. After a few introductory lessons aided by the use of slides and support materials, the course will take place in seminar form, with the involvement of the students in the analysis and discussion of the opera in question.

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

The final assessment consists of an oral exam on the entire syllabus, with
the final mark expressed in thirtieth. The aim is to assess students’ skills
and in particular, an understanding of the issues discussed during the
course, an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography in the course
programme, a correct command of the specific language as well as
critical and methodological abilities will be evaluated. The grading scale
goes from 1 to 30 with honours (cum laude): 1-17 fail, 18-21 sufficient,
22-24 fair, 25-27 good, 28-29 very good, 30-30 with honours (cum laude)
excellent.

Contacts/More Information

Regular attendance is strongly recommended, given the seminar-based structure of the course.

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

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