The Operas of Wagner

Jay Rosenblatt
Spring 2013
MONDAYS |  
1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m
January 28, February 4, 11, 18, 2013
Course Format: Hybrid
Location: Main Campus

In 2013 we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner (1813–1883). Perhaps no other composer so changed the course of music history through the way he reconceived the nature of opera and the way he stretched the boundaries of tonality. Many composers who followed found themselves swept up in these new approaches to form and harmony.

Four classes will consider Wagner in terms of both biography and music. The first two will provide an overview of Wagner’s life, including his background and education, his practical experience in the opera house (emphasizing his years as Kapellmeister in Dresden), and the creation and establishment of the Wagner festival in Bayreuth. In addition, these sessions will briefly discuss his first operas and will look at the distinctive features of the operas written before his banishment from Germany (The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, and Lohengrin).

The third and fourth classes will focus on Wagner’s musical techniques, including his radical new approach in the four operas that make up The Ring Cycle. The course closes with a look at Tristan and Isolde, The Meistersingers, and Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal.

Required Reading

Millington, Barry. Wagner. Princeton University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0691027226.

Recommended Reading

Spencer, Stewart. Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung: A Companion. Thames and Hudson, 2010. ISBN: 0500281947.

Meet Your Instructor

Associate Professor

JAY ROSENBLATT earned his B.A. in Piano Performance and M.A. in Musicology from UCLA and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, also in Musicology. He joined the School of Music at the University of Arizona in 1995. For the past twenty-eight years, he has taught survey courses (Classical and Romantic music), courses on opera, and seminars on individual composers such as Liszt and Mozart. Since 2012, he has taught eight courses in the Humanities Seminars.

Location

POETRY CENTER
Dorothy Rubel Room
1508 E Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States

Located on the SE corner of Helen Street and Vine Avenue, one block north of Speedway and three blocks west of Campbell Ave.

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