| CODE | LAS1050 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Opera Appreciation: Voice, Drama and Music | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | I - Introductory Level | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Centre for the Liberal Arts and Sciences | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | 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’s 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. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the unit the student will be able to: • Describe the important stages in the history of Opera; • Understand the style of opera written in different times throughout history; • Explain the plots and librettos used for some of the most famous operas; • Explain and understand theatre etiquette. 2. Skills: By the end of the unit the student will be able to: • Understand the key points in the history of opera; • Identify the different voice types (Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Baritone and Base) used by the composers; • Identify the different styles of opera; • Identify some of the most popular showstopper arias and tunes from the operatic world. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: 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. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Joseph Lia |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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