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:

2023/2024

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 opera and “I Capuleti e I Montecchi” by Vincenzo Bellini.
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 opera, 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: "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" by Felice Romani and Vincenzo Bellini and the other operatic versions of the myth of Romeo and Juliet.

Extended Syllabus

The story of Romeo and Juliet has endured for centuries and has left a vast legacy in all artistic genres (from literature to theatre, opera, and cinema), starting from the novel by Luigi Da Porto in 1524. The course unit will focus on the opera “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” by Vincenzo Bellini composed in 1830, performed at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and written in collaboration with the poet Felice Romani, one of the most famous and sought-after librettists of the time, who had already written a libretto on the same subject for Nicola Vaccaj in 1825.
After an extensive introduction on the philology of librettos, musical dramaturgy and the morphology of nineteenth-century opera, the course unit will deal with the detailed analysis of that opera, highlighting the relationship between text, music and scene. It will also consider the relationship between the libretto and the Shakespearean hypotext (the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”, 1597), mediated by the translations of Jean-François Ducis (1772) and Michele Leoni (1814), with a look at other contemporary operas on the same subject, in particular those of Foppa-Zingarelli (Milan 1796), Bonaiuti-Guglielmi (London 1810), and Romani-Vaccaj (Milan 1825). It will also shed light on the genesis and various versions of “I Capuleti e I Montecchi”, whose final scene has had a controversial textual and performing tradition.

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 Bellini and his dramaturgy:
- M. R. DE LUCA, Vincenzo Bellini, in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero. Musica, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2018, pp. 408-420.

On ‘I Capuleti e I Montecchi’ by Romani and Bellini and on operatic rewritings of the story of Romeo and Juliet (INDICATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY: the texts to be studied will be specified at the beginning of the course):
- F. DELLA SETA, Bellini, Milano, il Saggiatore, 2022, pp. 179-204 (chapter on “I Capuleti e i Montecchi”).
- Shakespeare all’Opera. Riscritture e allestimenti di “Romeo e Giulietta”. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Venezia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 23-24 aprile 2018), a cura di Maria Ida Biggi e Michele Girardi, Bari, Edizioni di Pagina, 2018. (https://iris.unive.it/retrieve/handle/10278/3715781/168171/Shakespeare%2...)
- F. VITTORINI, Shakespeare e il melodramma romantico, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 2000, pp. 317-375 (chapter on “Romeo e Giulietta”)
- “I Capuleti e i Montecchi”, Theatre programme, Venice, Teatro La Fenice, season 2014-15 (https://www.teatrolafenice.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/CAPULETI-E-I-MO...).

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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