The aim of this Unit is to familiarise students with the world of Opera. During this Unit one will broaden his/her general knowledge about Opera, and will start to appreciate more this genre that combines many art forms, including vocal art, drama, and music.
We will start from scratch, explaining the different styles opera went through time, and be able to understand the technical words used by the connoisseurs of opera. The aim of this exposition is to enrich the student鈥檚 understanding of the historical developments that opera underwent. This Unit will give the basic knowledge needed to appreciate the world of opera, and will give the opportunity to the student to identify from which operas come the most famous arias and opera tunes. This Unit is designed and aimed for those students who want to appreciate opera more, and want to fine-tune their understanding of tenor and soprano singing. To do so, this Unit will analyse the differences between these voices, and which plots and librettos inspired the best composers to write in this genre. This Unit will show how not all classical singing is opera, and other genres of vocal music, such as Oratorio, will also be briefly explained. The Unit is also intended to explain how one can identify audibly what makes an opera singer different from a pop singer or a folk singer.
Main Reading List
- Handouts given by tutor.
- Sadie, Stanley. The new Grove dictionary of opera. Oxford University Press, USA, 1992.
- Macy, Laura Williams. The Grove book of opera singers. Oxford University Press, USA, 2008.
- Grout, Donald Jay, and Hermine Weigel Williams. A short history of opera. Columbia University Press, 2003.
- Parker, Roger. The Oxford illustrated history of opera. Oxford Paperbacks, 2001.