The Impossibility of Love: Opera, Literature, and Culture

Opera has been called 'A Song of Love and Death,' and most plots feature love forbidden by family, rivals, or social rules. This seminar will study five operas from the Romantic era in which star-crossed love is not merely forbidden but impossible due to illness, psychology, divine law, or the boundary between humans and non-humans. In addition to being gorgeous in itself, each work represents a different language and national style and a stage in the development of opera across 19th-century Europe. We will see how opera responded to currents in literary romanticism, folklorism, national consciousness, and symphonic music. Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata (1853)Jules Massenet, Manon (1884)Richard Wagner, Die Walküre (1870)Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin (1879)Antonin Dvorak, Rusalka (1901)We will study the five works closely, spending about two weeks on each, and read scholarly interpretations from musical, literary, political, and socio-historical perspectives. You will learn to recognize the building blocks of Romantic opera: solo showpieces, introspective soliloquies, love duets, trios and quartets of intrigue, grand and festive choruses, ballets, and of course death scenes. We will compare multiple stagings of certain scenes to see how decisions of directors and performers can transform the meaning of the drama and music. All works will be studied in translation and on video with subtitles. No prior musical knowledge is required.