FOUR KEY QUESTIONS

1. What is the world of the piece? What happens, and what does your character think about it? What do the other characters think of your character? What does your character know (current and historical events, literary references, rules of particular card games, religious practices, etc.)?

MAIN SOURCE: The libretto and music.

In addition, literary sources and historical materials may be useful for unraveling characters’ references to current events, culture, games, etc.

2. What is the world in which the piece was made? What was going on in politics? Literature? Theater? Religion? Philosophy? Visual Arts? Music? Technology? Daily life?

SOURCE/SHORTCUT #1: The Timetables of History (Bernard Grun)

SOURCE/SHORTCUT #2: Wikipedia [search “1850s”]

How does #2 influence our understanding of #1, and vice versa?

3. What is the world in which you are making the piece today? What is going on in politics? Literature? Theater? Religion? Philosophy? Visual Arts? Music? Technology? Daily life? Where are the thematic connections, for better and for worse?

SOURCE/SHORTCUT #1: There are no shortcuts. Artists engage with the world they live in.

SOURCE/SHORTCUT #2: Google “opera” + [title] + “controversial”

How does #3 influence our thoughts about #1 and #2?

4. What is the world you want to create? What is the story you are telling, and why are you telling it? Why is this important to you, personally, as an artist, citizen, human being?

 SOME GENERAL ONLINE RESOURCES

·       Scores: IMSLP

·       Libretti (Original + English): OperaFolio

·       San Diego Opera’s Operapaedia contains short analyses of music, libretti and source materials for 40+ operas

A FEW KEY LITERARY SOURCES — ONLINE!

·       Ariosto: Orlando Furioso

·       Beaumarchais: The Barber of Seville |  The Marriage of Figaro

·       Dumas: Camille novel | play

·       Goethe: Faust

·       Long: Madame Butterfly

·       Merimee: Carmen

·       Pushkin: Boris Godunov | Eugene Onegin | The Queen of Spades

·       Sardou: La Tosca (in French)

·       Shakespeare: complete plays

·       Tasso: Gerusalemme liberata

SOME BOOKS FOR BASICS

There are countless books discussing the composers of the standard repertory and their work. The books listed below are offer a musical & dramatic analysis of each composers’ major works, as well as biographical information related to each work’s composition and premiere. They are a good place to start! Check their bibliographies for other ideas.

·       The Operas of Benjamin Britten: Expression and Evasion | Claire Seymour

·       The Operas of Charles Gounod | Steven Huebner

·       Handel’s Operas: 1704-1726 | Winton Dean & John Merrill Knapp

·       Handel’s Operas: 1726-1741 | Winton Dean

·       Monteverdi’s Musical Theatre | Tim Carter

·       The Operas of Mozart | William Mann

·       The Operas of Puccini | Roger Parker & William Ashbrook

·       Tchaikovsky (in four volumes: The Early Years, 1840-1874; The Crisis Years, 1874-1878; The Years of Fame, 1878-1893; The Final Years, 1885-1893) | David Brown

·       The Operas of Verdi (in three volumes: from Oberto to Rigoletto; from Il trovatore to La forza del destino; from Don Carlos to Falstaff) | Julian Budden

In addition, Cambridge Opera Handbooks offer a chance to immerse yourself in a single opera, including musical/dramatic analysis, history, essays, and a bibliography. English National Opera Guides offer similar information, albeit slightly less in-depth, plus an English libretto. Out of print, but usually easily found via Amazon – search [opera title] + [Cambridge] or [English National Opera Guide].

AND MORE…

Gary Schmidgall has written two books that analyze selected operas based on important literary works, along with their sources. Literature and Opera considers Handel’s Orlando, Ariodante, and Alcina; Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro; Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor; Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini; Verdi’s Macbeth; Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Oregon; Strauss’ Salome; Berg’s Wozzeck; and Britten’s Death in Venice. Shakespeare and Opera considers aspects of style and dramaturgy in-depth before turning to an analysis of individual operas based on Othello, King Lear, Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado about Nothing, The Tempest, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, and Falstaff.

When performing works from another time, what is the relationship between scholarship and performance? Philip Gossett’s Divas and Scholars considers a variety of issues related to performing nineteenth-century Italian opera.

Patrick J. Smith’s The Tenth Muse is a historical study of the opera libretto. In addition to looking at how individual librettists transformed their sources into libretti, Smith tracks the shifting relationship between drama, dance, words and music, as revealed in typical libretto structures of each era.

Blackness in Opera, edited by Naomi André, Karen M. Bryan, and Eric Saylor, examines the intersections of race and music in opera, considering works both well-known and obscure. The exploration continues in Dr. André’s Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement, which posits opera as a site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change. 

to be continued….