Opera in American Contexts

Jenny Lind at Castle Garden September 11, 1850

MHL 729
Mondays 10:00 to 11:50 in Room C01

Instructor: Rose Theresa
email: rose@opera.contexts.us
office: SFCM Oak Street 511
hours: after class and by appointment

Course Description

This is a seminar on the history and social significance of (mostly European) opera in America. We will spend the semester exploring a few important operatic events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Along the way, we'll touch upon operas that figured prominently in American performance history: Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s Il trovatore, Gounod’s Faust, Strauss’s Salome, Puccini’s La boheme. The first few weeks will also provide a social historical backdrop, introducing issues and ideas to pursue for our ultimate focus on San Francisco as a case study in operatic culture today. There are presently over twenty performing opera companies in the greater bay area. Administrators from a few of these will join us as seminar guests. We will also attend several dress rehearsals and performances. As the major research component of the seminar, each participant will investigate a local operatic production and report on findings in a progress report, presentation and final paper.

Course Materials

Most of the materials for this course will be available through this website and also our interactive sister site.
Audio and video recordings will be on reserve in the library.
There are also several books on reserve; participants may choose to purchase copies of some of these.

Martin, George. Verdi at the Golden Gate : Opera and San Francisco in the Gold Rush Years.
Bloomfield, Arthur. The San Francisco opera, 1922-1978. (Can only buy it used?)
Becker, Howard S. Art Worlds. (Make sure to get the updated version published 2008.)
Emerson, Robert M. et al. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes.
Dizikes, John. Opera in American: A Cultural History.

Course Requirements

Participation
Our seminar meetings will be comprised mostly of group discussion. It is imperative that you come to class ready and able to discuss the topics at hand.

Weekly Assignments
These will include a fair amount of reading with some listening and viewing.
Weekly tasks have been designed to facilitate thoughtful, articulate discussion.
The following tasks will be shared among groups of two or three students each:

Essays (one or two groups will be assigned essays of three to five paragraphs)
Seminar Discussions (one or two groups will prepare and lead discussion of the materials)
Seminar Notes (one group will take notes to post on our interactive site)

Semester Projects
Weekly assignments are also designed to prepare us to create amazing semester projects. For your projects, you may work individually or, in some cases, as a team of two or three. Your topic will be the world of opera as lived and performed in San Francisco. You will choose one of the bay area’s many performing opera companies and, after getting to know that company, you will focus on one of its past, present or future productions. You will report your findings in a progress report, presentation and final paper. More detailed instructions will be issued throughout the semester.

Grading

50% Weekly Assignments
50% Semester Projects

Please note: I reserve the right to give pop quizzes at any time and in any format. I also reserve the right to adjust your final grade up or down by up to two notches (for example, a B up to an A- or down to a C+) based on pop quizzes and overall classroom participation. (I expect, however, that each of you will earn a final “A” in this seminar.)