Opera and Media

This course considers opera both as a medium in itself and as it has been remediated in radio, television, and film. We will examine contemporary and canonic works and ask how the multiple media forms that constitute opera, including libretti, music, stage design, architecture, and recording technologies, have shaped opera’s composition and consumption over the last four centuries. Our journey will take us from Monteverdi to Mazzoli, and will cover many of the most important Italian, German, French, Slavic, and English-language operas from the eighteenth-century to the present. Through active listening, reading and discussion, we will study how opera has been translated, exported and remade and how it has been charged with commenting on and disseminating political, cultural, and racial identities.