Seminar in Musicology: Opera and Celebrity

What does it mean to be a famous musician? Where did the idea of celebrity come from, and how did it work in theatrical music at different times and at in different places throughout history? How are our views of famous singers shaped by the stories that have been told about them? This course interrogates celebrity as a historical construct and as a form of identity that musicians have performed in different ways for different reasons. We will examine celebrity and soloistic pursuits in a range of contexts, focusing on music, theater, and the solo performer on the European stage (with occasional trips to America) from around 1600 to around 1900. We will consider how celebrity studies and its methods, materials, and subjects can help us better understand opera and its development in an historical context. Students will be encouraged to pursue independent projects according to their interests, including ones that might lie outside these historical or geographical areas of focus. Open to graduate students.