| Course Title: Music Analysis: 'Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro' |
| Start Date: 09/03/2025 End Date: 12/16/2025 |
| Term: Fall Semester 2025 |
| Description: In conjunction with the Five College Opera's Spring 2026 production of Mozart's 1786 opera Le Nozze di Figaro, this course will give students a thorough grounding in the adaptation of plays into operas, and the analysis of opera. We will undertake a close reading of Beaumarchais' play (in translation), da Ponte's libretto, Mozart's settings, and a number of historic and contemporary productions, in order to explore how operas work with and against their source texts, and also how opera analysis and dramaturgy can inform creative choices about music and staging. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to decode text and music in opera, to critically engage with the analyses of other scholars, and to comprehend some of the challenges and drawbacks of opera analysis. |
| Distribution(s): I - Humanities , WI - Writing-Intensive , TP - Topics Course |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Adeline Mueller | amueller@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 09/03/2025 - 12/16/2025 | Seminar | Monday and Wednesday | 03:15PM - 04:30PM | PRAT - Pratt Memorial Music Bldg | WRBK | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| Prereq: one of the following: MUSIC-231, MUSIC-281, MUSIC-282, MUSIC-283, MUSIC-284. | Take previously | Required |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Course Tags |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Open | Capacity: 18 | Enrollment: 8 | Available: 10 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| To be determined. |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is NOT the complete book list for this class. |