"Greek Tragedy and Opera": An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate

Seminar
Ferrario, Sarah Brown.

Classical World, Volume 99, Number 1, Fall 2005, pp. 51-66 (Article)

Published by Classical Association of the Atlantic States

DOI: 10.1353/clw.2006.0009

For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/clw/summary/v099/99.1ferrario.html

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51

PAEDAGOGUS
GREEK TRAGEDY AND OPERA:
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY UNDERGRADUATE SEMINAR
There are few art forms whose birth is so well informedand so well
documentedas that of opera. In the later decades of the sixteenth century, a group of humanists who called themselves La Camerata were gathering regularly in Florence, as were so many other intellectual salons at
that time, to discuss literature, art, and music. Among this particular assembly was one Vincenzo Galilei, an accomplished musical performer and
theorist whose more scientific son would, decades later, shake the intellectual and spiritual landscape of Italy. During the 1570s and 1580s Galilei
and the groups host, Count Giovanni Bardi, seem to have dominated the
musical portion of La Cameratas discussions as a lively debate raged
upon the true nature of Greek tragedy and especially upon the possible
construction of its lost music. Fascinated with the expressive speech of
ancient drama, the members of what we now know as the Florentine
Camerata sought a way to set poetry to music so that its words would
remain clear and unimpeded, yet be emphasized and supported by a flexible instrumental accompaniment. What they thus created is today called
recitative, and the dramme per musiche in which some of their associates employed it are traditionally honored as the first operas. 1 Iacopo Peris
Dafne (1595), a setting in Italian of the Apollo-Daphne myth (best known
to the Florentine Camerata, and to modern readers as well, from Ov. Met.
1.452567), is lost. But his Euridice (1599), with a libretto by the poet
Ottavio Rinuccini, does survive, and it is here that the history of Western
operaand our new course on the operatic reception of Greek tragedy
begins.
In spring 2003, my co-instructor, Dr. Andrew Earle Simpson (Assistant
Professor of Music), and I proposed the addition of a new interdisciplinary undergraduate seminar to The Catholic University of Americas course
listings for the following fall. Greek Tragedy and Opera sought to explore the integral connection between these two creative genres from the
time of operas origins down to the present day. The course began with a
one-meeting study of the cultural position of fifth-century Athenian drama
and its influence upon Roman literature such as Ovids Metamorphoses
and Vergils Aeneid. The seminar then constantly revisited and expanded
upon these concepts as it engaged in a historical survey of selected Italian, English, French, Russian, German, Greek, and American operas based
upon the plots and concepts of Greek tragedy. 2 Our rather ambitious goal
as instructors was that by the conclusion of the seminar our students would
gain a good general knowledge of the literary structures and priorities of
Greek tragedy, of the performance practices of some four hundred years
1
A convenient collection of sources on these events is C. V. Palisca, The Florentine
Camerata: Documentary Studies and Translations (New Haven 1989), with additional
references; the preceding summary is based upon the information presented in Paliscas
introduction.
2
Strictly speaking, of course, there is no extant Greek tragedy available for
students to study in conjunction with, for example, operas which treat the myths of
Orpheus (perhaps the single most frequently represented subject in all of operatic
history) or of Dido and Aeneas. We were able, however, to incorporate such works
into our syllabus through careful, constant observation and discussion of what may
have helped to make a narrative (arguably) tragic in both ancient and modern terms.

51

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of European and American opera, and of some of the intellectual and

cultural influences that have governed the constant reinterpretation of ancient art forms in the Western world.
As we ourselves had just finished creating and staging a new opera,
Agamemnon, 3 based upon Aeschylus tragedy (Simpson is Agamemnons
composer; I am its translator and librettist), at The Catholic University of
America (hereafter CUA), we were in a uniquely appropriate position to
offer this new seminar: we would be able to offer our students an experience-based perspective on both the literary and the musical aspects of
operatic composition and performance. We therefore remain very grateful
to our respective CUA divisions, the School of Music and the Department
of Greek and Latin, for agreeing to host and register Greek Tragedy and
Opera as a joint effort. The cross-listing of the seminar provided wider
opportunities for the fulfillment of various degree requirements, and we
therefore were able to enroll students from such diverse disciplines as
history, elementary education, political science, and English, as well as
from music and classics. Despite the lack of formal prerequisites other
than sophomore standing (no foreign language or music-reading skills were
required for entry into the seminar), the subject matter of the course appeared to generate a self-selecting membership. Nearly all of the students
indicated on a paper survey conducted at the first class meeting that they
had received some formal musical training and had read some ancient
Greek literature (in translation) before joining the seminara felicitous
situation, to be sure, but one which we deliberately avoided depending
upon in our presentations of course material, since levels of experience
still varied widely.
Once the seminar was approved, the first major challenge we encountered was the assembly of the finalized syllabus, primarily because of the
extensive use we planned to make of recordings. Many worthy and interesting works by well-known composers are long out of print or so little
known that they are virtually or completely unavailable; 4 further, university libraries do not generally hold media materials subject to interlibrary
loan cooperation. To a great extent, then, the works which we chose to
teach would have to be determined by the holdings of the CUA Music
Library. In order to place some control upon what could therefore have
verged upon curricular randomness, we drew up a syllabus and presentation list containing accessible pieces which fell into one of four categories: 1) well-known works which we considered to be intellectually and
artistically essential to our main focus (e.g., Peris aforementioned Euridice,
Glucks two Iphigeneia operas, Strauss Elektra); 2) somewhat lesser-known
3
University premiere production: April 2527, 2003, Hartke Theatre, CUA, Washington, D.C. Additional information on this production and on The Oresteia Project,
of which Agamemnon comprises the first part, may be found via the gateway site at
http://music.cua.edu/oresteia.
4
E.g., Antigonai and Oedipus Tyrannos, two less famous works by Karl Orff,
the composer of the well-known Carmina Burana (1937). There are two recordings
of Antigonai (one live, one studio) in existence, but one of these is out of print, and
the other has never been commercially released; see J. Rockwell, Going Beyond Carmina
Burana and Beyond Orff s Stigma, The New York Times (Dec. 5, 2003). Handels
Oreste (1734), an Italian pasticcio which treats events in the life of Orestes after his
murder of Klytemnestra and which could have been studied alongside Euripides Orestes,
has only just received its first known commercial recording (see the discography at
the end of this article). We hope to incorporate it into future versions of this course.

P AEDAGOGUS

53

works by leading composers which demonstrated important points about the

reception of tragedy (e.g., Handels Hercules); 3) works which were related
to the course goals, but which also embodied significant developments in
the history of music in general and opera in particular (e.g., Purcells Dido
and Aeneas, Berliozs Les Troyens); 5 4) a selection of more obscure but
highly instructive and teachable pieces (e.g., Taneyevs Oresteia, Theodorakis
Antigone). In addition to listening to approximately twenty-five to sixty
minutes of music for each class meeting, the students would also complete
substantial readings in the ancient literature, as well as an entire opera
libretto (occasionally more than one) in English translation.6
A word should be said about secondary literature, which was only sparingly
employed in this course. A number of factors governed our decision not
to assign extended analytical or critical secondary readings: the view of
Western intellectual history taken by the class was necessarily quite broad,
given its nature as a survey; the subject matter required constant customized tailoring in instructor presentations in order for the interdisciplinary emphasis of the course to be maintained; and the engagement with
the primary sources was extensive (see the syllabus included in appendix
A at the end of this article). We did, however, occasionally introduce
short, demonstrative secondary materials in class and discuss them at sight
in light of the students prior preparation of the primary sources. 7 It would
certainly be possible to redesign this course in a way that would permit
the inclusion of more secondary readings (e.g., holding more frequent
meetings or using a higher-level course number to permit even more ambitious assignments). In the way that this pilot version of the course was
designed, however, we as instructors considered it our responsibility to
allow secondary literature and current scholarship to inform the ways that
we taught and discussed the primary sources. 8
5
These works, of course, called for additional in-class treatment of some of the
issues involved in the Roman reception of Greek tragic structures and concepts; the
Purcell owes nearly all of its content to the tragedy of Dido in Vergils Aeneid,
and the Berlioz draws most of its plot structure from Vergil, as well.
6
The students generally read the libretti that were enclosed in their recordings,
as most of the libretti in our course were not separately available in collected published translations, contra, for example, the libretti of Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner:
e.g., N. Castel, The Complete Verdi Libretti (with International Phonetic Alphabet transcriptions, word-for-word translations, a guide to the IPA, and notes on the Italian
transcriptions), 4 vols. (Geneseo, N.Y., 19941996), and The Complete Puccini Libretti (with International Phonetic Alphabet transcriptions and word-for-word translations),
2 vols. (Geneseo, N.Y., 19931994); see also G. Schirmers Collection of Opera Librettos [sic] (New York, various dates).
7
E.g., librettist R. Calzabigis introduction (in Glucks voice) to Glucks published (1769) score of his Alceste. The ghost-written introduction comprises an articulate
statement of operatic reform aesthetics (English translation: P. Weiss and R. Taruskin,
Music in the Western World: A History in Documents [New York 1984] 3012); the
Shakespearean intertexts in Berliozs libretto for his Les Troyens (Lorenzos opening
speech in Merchant of Venice, act V, scene 1, is reworked by Berlioz in his act 4
duet between Aeneas and Dido); and Stravinskys introduction to his (19261927)
score of Oedipus Rex, discussing the unique staging he envisioned for this work, which
he termed an opera-oratorio.
8
A future version of this course might include appropriate secondary readings
from, e.g., the following: P. Bauschatz, Oedipus: Stravinsky and Cocteau Recompose Sophocles, CompLit 43.2 (1991) 15070; Berliozs correspondence on the conception
and development of his Les Troyens (a good selection of this material is available in

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C LASSICAL W ORLD

Because the seminar met only once weekly, class meetings were of an
extended length (2.5 hours) and incorporated a wide variety of activities.
They often began with a listening quiz (see below on the structure and
purpose of these quizzes) on the weeks assignment or occasionally on
back material. The remainder of the class time was generally broken into
three sections, focused, respectively, upon the ancient literature, its original cultural position, and its interpretation; upon the opera or operas studied
during the week, their reception and transformation of the ancient literature, and their roles in operatic and musical history; and upon student
presentations.
In general, the class followed a lecture-and-discussion format, with instructor presentations directly interspersed with student comments and questions.
We found that we had a great deal more success allowing discussions to
spring spontaneously from our own talking points than we did in placing
questions directly to the class or deliberately attempting to open a dialogue. Operatic treatments of tragedies which the class members had experienced repeatedly at multiple levels of their educations, even as far
back as high school (e.g., Sophocles Oedipus the King and Antigone,
Euripides Medea), sparked lively responses as the students stretched themselves
towards more sophisticated interpretations of what had once been comfortably familiar texts. Theodorakis sympathetic portrayal of Medea in
her hauntingly beautiful aria Paidia o mikra (Theodorakis, Medea, act
2, scene 12, cast from Medeas deliberation speech at Eur. Med. 1021
1080), for example, prompted a student who had once been moved primarily by the Euripidean heroines dominating strength and will to reflect
upon the tragic character in a new light. During her presentation, she
focused instead at this point in the drama upon the horror of the choice at
which Medea had arrived. Works which revealed a great deal about the
lives and cultures of the audiences for which they were written (e.g.,
Vergils and Purcells versions of the Dido and Aeneas story on the political climates of Augustan Rome and Restoration England, respectively; Sophocles
Women of Trachis on the status of the woman and the wife in ancient
English in the extensive liner notes to the recording cited in the discography following this article); J. Chailley, The Magic Flute Unveiled: Esoteric Symbolism in Mozarts
Masonic Opera: An Interpretation of the Libretto and the Music (Rochester, Vt., 1992),
previously published as The Magic Flute, Masonic Opera, tr. H. Weinstock (New York
1971), itself a translation of Chailleys original La flte enchante: opra maconnique.
Essai d explication du livret et de la musique (Paris 1968); J. J. Clauss and S. I.
Johnston, eds., Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art (Princeton
1997), esp. M. McDonalds essay (Medea as Politician and Diva: Riding the Dragon
into the Future, 297323), which includes a brief analysis of Theodorakis Medea
(1991); M. Ewans, Wagner and Aeschylus: The Ring and the Oresteia (Cambridge
1983); L. Hardwick, Reception Studies = G&R New Surveys in the Classics 33 (Oxford 2003); M. O. Lee, Athena Sings: Wagner and the Greeks (Toronto 2003); W.
Mellers, The Masks of Orpheus: Seven Stages in the Story of European Music (Manchester
1987); Palisca (above, n.1); R. Parker, ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera
(Oxford 1994); C. Price, ed., Dido and Aeneas: An Opera, Norton Critical Scores
(New York 1986); S. Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 vols. (New
York 1992), and History of Opera (New York 1990); Theodorakis and others on-line
commentaries upon his operas (www.mikis-theodorakis.net/indexenglish.htm, s.v. Operas);
S. Walsh, Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge 1993);
J. Warden, ed., Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth (Toronto 1982), esp. W. S.
Andersons (The Orpheus of Virgil and Ovid: flebile nescio quid, 2550) and T. J.
McGees (Orfeo and Euridice, The First Two Operas, 16381) essays.

P AEDAGOGUS

55

Athens; the works of Theodorakis on the complex relationship of modern

Greece to ancient Greece) also fascinated class members and provoked
thoughtful responses and questions. Among other points of discussion, the
students tried to decide whether Purcell had really managed to restore to
Dido in one aria (When I am laid in earth, Purcell, Dido and Aeneas,
act 3) the tragic pathos with which they felt Vergil had instilled herand
which librettist Nahum Tate had, in their eyes, all but removed for the
sake of literary style and politics. They bristled at what they initially felt
was the reduction of strong, vibrant, interesting tragic women to mere
romantic interests, and at the intrusion of newly invented female characters into operas purely for the sake of love-duets. (We gently helped them
to complicate their views both of tragic heroines and of the practical
concerns of the early classical stage.) And like all audiences throughout
operatic history, our students displayed a genuine interest in and taste for
spectacle, even that which was experienced somewhat vicariously, through
video and images. They were particularly taken by the mass suicide of
the Trojan women at the conclusion of act 2 of Berliozs Les Troyens and
by Julie Taymors evocative and highly symbolic staging of Stravinskys
Oedipus Rex, especially when we challenged them to analyze their own
emotional responses to what they saw or imagined seeing and to compare
their reactions with those of potential contemporary (to both the operas
and the ancient literature) audiences.
Abundant supplementary materials were naturally employed in the classroom throughout this seminar: audio examples during every opera lecture
and every student presentation (see below on the content and structure of
these presentations); videotape, laserdisc, and DVD recordings of operatic
performances; selected secondary sources; and instructor-generated handouts. As there is, of course, no existing textbook for this type of course
(indeed, it would be almost impossible to write one which could account
for the varied facilities and media holdings of each institution at which it
might be used), 9 all vital information was communicated or reiterated on
paper via a set of new handouts distributed every week. Our students
received one-page author sheets for each ancient writer or set of works
encountered, with brief biographical, literary, and interpretive information; special-topics handouts on the ancient literature covering issues such
as the basic structures and features of Greek tragedy and the Greek theatre, the comparison of Sophocles and Euripides Electra plays, and the
interpretation of Aeschylus Oresteia; a recapitulation of every opera studied,
with roles, instrumentation, a plot summary, and study questions; and additional musical supplements, such as timelines and summaries of important artistic trends. 10
With so much information exchanged at each class meeting, the reinforcement of both content and concepts was vital in order for the students
to grasp the larger vision of the course. To this end, we designed four
different assessment activities to encourage student reengagement with earlier
9
P. Mayerson (Classical Mythology in Literature, Art, and Music [Newburyport,
Mass., 2001]) might be usable in some respects for basic background reading, but it
contains too little direct treatment of musical works to be viable as a course textbook.
10
While the argument might be made that a course packet containing these items
should have been created before the beginning of the seminar, we felt it was essential that our materials respond to the level and the needs of our class from week to
week, particularly in the pilot version of this course.

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material even as new items were introduced: listening quizzes, short-response assignments, a midterm exam, and a final paper. The listening quizzes
were designed to test the most unfamiliar (for most of our students) study
technique in the course, i.e., listening to, following, retaining knowledge
about, and constructing arguments based upon extended audio examples. 11
The quizzes generally required the identification of two musical excerpts
from the syllabus on a single hearing, followed by a short response to a
disclosed excerpt, describing, e.g., the differences between two composers musical treatments of a thunderstorm, or the ways in which a given
characters emotional agitation was reflected in his or her music. The students were not expected to exhibit musical-analytical skills beyond those
taught in class, but they were expected to demonstrate a clear knowledge
of and be able to interpret first, what they were hearing from a literary
standpoint (plot, characters, content); and secondly, what they were hearing from a musical standpoint (tempo, dynamics, texture, basic instrument
recognition, the symbolic meanings associated with various instrumentations or styles). Students were asked to develop a very basic understanding of musical mode (major vs. minor keys) as well, which those who
were newer to the subject matter were encouraged to express as bright
or happy (major) vs. dark, sad, or angry (minor) sounds. All members
of the class displayed good success with this level of approach, and many
of them even chose to resurrect their personal knowledge of a few musical-technical terms from their earlier fine arts educations.
Short-response assignments, which took the basic form of two-page essays
on assigned topics, served several purposes simultaneously. In addition to
requiring reengagement with older course material, they also provided the
students with opportunities to review and offer additional proof for central interpretive concepts, to practice articulating ideas with the new terminology they were learning in class, to learn to quote and cite their
primary sources efficiently and accurately, and to present written work for
detailed instructor assessment and feedback well in advance of their production of their more extensive final papers. The short-response assignments, while they required arguments based on all three of the courses
study elements (ancient literature, opera libretti, and music), were strictly
limited in length to approximately five hundred words, with part of their
goal being to encourage tight, cogent expression, so that students would
receive the added benefit of honing their writing skills. Each assignment
took the form of an essay question which could be adequately addressed
for our purposes (albeit in highly summary form) in the space allotted,
with a list of leading questions and ideas for initial consideration appended to guide students to the appropriate level and depth of interpretation. Student work on the short-response assignments seems to have served
its purpose; the grades on these brief essays nearly all rose in a linear
progression over the course of the semester, as the class members grew
better accustomed to saying more within a limited space. One of the most
successful short-response assignments (and the one which generated the
most interesting and enjoyable papers to read) is incorporated into appendix B, below.
11
Listening assessments of various types, of course, are standard examinations
in current undergraduate music school curricula: see the accreditation guidelines published
in the National Association of Schools of Music Handbook 20052006, 7375 (accessible via the Associations Web site at http://nasm.arts-accredit.org).

P AEDAGOGUS

57

The midterm exam and final paper took more familiar forms. The midterm included a listening section which treated a cumulative but abbreviated listening list distributed in advance, as well as a section in which
students were required to select and define both musical and literary terms
from a group provided, and two short essay questions, again student-selected
from several options. The final paper, whose required length was seven to
ten pages, was designed to encourage the comparison and contrast of characters,
forms, styles, and especially reception choices from several different operas studied during the second half of the semester (i.e., those works not
previously reviewed for the midterm exam); it demanded thoughtful, meaningful
engagement with the primary (rather than secondary) sources at a level
beyond that practiced in the short-response assignments.
One of the features most frequently associated with a class listed as a
seminar is student presentations. Greek Tragedy and Opera featured a
half-hour presentation by each member of the class centering upon a fulllength musical work (an opera, operetta, or musical theatre piece) from
outside of the main course syllabus. Our students selected their presentation datesand therefore their topicson the first day of seminar, but
the presentations themselves did not begin until week 6, which allowed
ample time for the distribution and internalization of guidelines on length,
content, and handout requirements. Most students elected to meet with
one or both of the seminar instructors in advance of their presentations to
receive any extra bibliographic recommendations, discuss special aspects
of their respective topics, and ask questions. Although detailed secondary
research was not explicitly required for any of the presentations, most
students chose to read more about their composers and pieces in, e.g.,
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 12 or to engage in
some selective Web searches for additional information, particularly on
living composers and their works. 13
Student presenters were required to demonstrate detailed knowledge of
the totality of their respective musical works (both music and libretti) and
of the ancient literature which functioned as their sources; their overriding goal was to assess how and why the musical works employed the
ancient literature as they did. Had the composer-librettist team altered the
content, sense, or meaning (as understood by the student) of the ancient
text, and if so, for what likely aesthetic, political, or other reason? Had
they foregrounded or prioritized particular aspects of the ancient drama or
narrative to serve their ends? What had the modern work gained through
its associations with antiquity? The students were also required to incorporate listening examples into their presentations to serve as proofs or
examples of the points they made. Handouts, which were mandatory, were
assessed on the basis of their clarity, organization, and relevance; they
contained outlines of presentation content, facts about the musical works
(dates, roles, structure, and instrumentation), plot synopses, literary references, bibliography, and any additional information which their creators
found interesting or relevant. A good number of the students chose to
include images in their handouts as well. The packets thus produced, and
12

S. Sadie and J. Tyrell, executive eds., 2nd ed. (New York 2000).
This was especially important for the two students who worked on Theodorakis
Medea (1991) and Electra (1993) for their presentations; much of the available information in English on this composer and his music is on the Web at his official
site (above, n.8).
13

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the presentations which they documented, provided our class members with
introductions to and basic reference information for no fewer than fifteen
separate musical works based upon Greek tragedy or tragic concepts, in
addition to the eighteen already incorporated into the main syllabus.
Overall, the quality of the presentations tended to be quite good. There
was, naturally, an increasing amount of satisfactory work accumulated as
the semester continued, and so the later presentations tended, under the
influence of predecessors experiences, to be even stronger and more efficient than the earlier ones. Students who elected to conference with the
instructors before their presentations naturally tended to produce more
successful results than those who did not; one of the most interesting and
original attempts of the course, however, a thought-provoking effort to
read Camille du Locles libretto for Verdis Ada (1871) in the light of
Sophocles Antigone, 14 was produced by a student who chose not to meet
with us in advance.
There were quite a number of challenges encountered in the first run
through this new seminar. The amount of reading and listening which of
necessity had to be completed in the Music Library, for example, sometimes posed retention problems when students arrived at seminar several
days later. Although there will be issues of copyright which must be resolved if this is to happen, the next time this course is offered we would
ultimately like to make the opera libretti and music we are using accessible to our class members via electronic library reserves at a passwordsecured university site.15 This would allow students to prepare for class
on their own terms, to review as often as they would like, and to share
the same physical resources without limitation.
One of the most interesting and productive class discussions of the
entire semester actually arose from one of our challenges: an error in the
course reserves. Glucks Iphignie en Aulide, we discovered, was only
available to us at the moment in a recording of its reorchestration by
Richard Wagner. Wagners rich and interesting but anachronistic influence
was apparent throughout, not merely in the thickened textures of the orchestral lines, but in entirely new passages of music which he had inserted into Glucks much simpler and more transparent score. With Glucks
Enlightenment-era operatic reforms of both poetics and music occupy14
The student noted the political defiance of both Antigone and Rhadamis and
the self-sacrifices of both Haemon and Ada, and also saw an aesthetic connection
between the deaths of Antigone and Haemon in the burial chamber and the suffocation of Rhadamis and Ada in the vaults beneath the Temple of Ptah. He was therefore
drawn particularly to Antigones firm resolve and her destruction for the sake of love,
although he admitted that Antigones prioritization of her brother did not map perfectly onto the nineteenth-century romance and in fact pointed up the alienness of
certain ancient values to modern sensibilities. For a musicological perspective on du
Locles convoluted arrival at Adas final storyline, see J. Budden, The Operas of Verdi,
vol. 3, From Don Carlos to Falstaff (New York 1981) 16366. Jon Solomon (Department of Classics, University of Arizona) recently proposed at the 2005 Annual Meeting
of the American Philological Association that many of the names of Adas main characters
are based upon Egyptian names referenced on the Rosetta Stone, which might help
to support a creative ancient connection with the operas plot.
15
On universities recent efforts to acquaint themselves with the relevant new
copyright laws regarding on-line postings of multimedia reserves, see D. Carnevale,
Slow Start for Long-Awaited Easing of Copyright Restriction, The Chronicle of Higher
Education (Mar. 28, 2003) 29.

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59

ing such a significant position in the history of opera as a whole, 16 we

were left unable to teach this works music through Wagners revision. I
quickly developed a new lesson on tragic reception and textual criticism
based on the surviving state of Euripides Iphigeneia in Aulis, and the
silent comparison of this battered play with M-F. L. G. B. du Roullets
libretto for Glucks Iphignie en Aulide proved surprisingly successful.
Student interest in the problems associated with the ancient text was high:
students were very eager to understand how and why our extant version
may have been transmitted in this way, particularly after they saw the
detailed textual-criticism symbols in the margins of Diggles modern Oxford Classical Text, 17 which we showed to them during class. A productive
discussion ensued about whether or not du Roullet had managed to smooth
over the shortcomings and oddities of the Euripidean play as received and
whether or not his solutions may have provided any insights into the intended state of the original.
In addition to the challenges, however, there were also some special
opportunities. The opera being performed by CUAs School of Music during the semester in which this course was taught was Mozarts Die Zauberflte
(The Magic Flute), a piece filled with Masonic (and hence para-Egyptian)
symbolism, 18 arguably displaying mythological paradigms similar to those
of the Orpheus myth. We invited our students to attend a particular performance before which we held a preconcert lecture and later engaged in
a dialogue about these possible mythological associations in class. 19 We
also taught our own opera, Agamemnon, as part of the course repertory
and outlined for the students the literary and musical creative processes
involved from conception to practical realization. On the final day of seminar,
the subject became not tragedy, but comedy, as we discussed the second
half of Aristophanes Frogs (focusing particularly upon the battle of words
and wits between Aeschylus and Euripides), enjoyed A. E. Housmans Fragment
of a Greek Tragedy, and studied the influence of the operatic tradition
upon Stephen Sondheims musical Frogs. 20
16
These reforms were of particular significance for our course because to an
extent Gluck believed that he was seeking to draw opera closer to its originsand to
ancient tragedy: see, e.g., P. Howard, Gluck and the Birth of Modern Opera (London
1963). Additional useful information may be found in P. Howard, C. W. von Gluck:
Orfeo, Cambridge Opera Handbooks (Cambridge 1981).
17
J. Diggle, Euripidis Fabulae, vol. 3, Oxford Classical Texts (Oxford 1994).
18
Chailley (above, n.8).
19
We do not consider this opera essential to our overall vision of this courses
content; it was, rather, a good opportunity to incorporate what was currently taking
place at the university. In future sessions of this course, we would hope to incorporate other live performances, whether at CUA or elsewhere in Washington, D.C.
20
A. E. Housman, Fragment of a Greek Tragedy, Cornhill Magazine n.s. 10
(1901) 44345. The poem was reprinted many times thereafter. Rarely do younger
students of ancient Greek literature accumulate sufficient experience with tragedy, particularly
in survey courses, to fully appreciate much of the humor of the battle of the tragedians in Aristophanes Frogs. The opportunity to study this work with our class at the
conclusion of the semester therefore represented both a culmination and a reward for
them: in exchange for their hard work, they had earned the knowledge which let them
laugh. Sondheims Frogs is a delightful work which, though some thirty years old,
recently received its first recordings (though, regrettably, without the dialogue between the musical numbers, either the original or the dialogue recently reworked by
Nathan Lane for a 2004 revival). The piece recasts the conflict between Aeschylus
and Euripides as a confrontation between Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw.

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In the end, we would both assess our experiences with this course as
being highly positive, and we look forward to returning to it in the future. Although the productive resultsboth academic and economic 21of
the pilot version of the course should certainly aid in our securing the
opportunity to run it again, we have learned some valuable lessons which
we would hope to apply next time around. Firstly, although it would undoubtedly pose significantly greater organizational and planning challenges,
we would give serious consideration to changing the class meetings to a
Tuesday-Thursday or a Monday-Wednesday-Friday format. We feel that
constant return to the same material for two or three (nearly) consecutive
days would promote more successful study management and detail retention within the busy context of the undergraduate academic schedule. Secondly, we would like to be able, if possible, to welcome a few more
students into the seminar. Our pilot enrollment cap of fifteen proved ideal
with regard to the amount of class time devoted to student presentations
and the allocation of physical resources. Initiating on-line reserves as discussed above, however, and permitting students to present in pairs or groups
might allow us to raise our cap or even (at a maximum, I would suspect)
to double it. Aside from these changes, however, we look forward to redeveloping our syllabus and to continuing to explore with our students the
ever-increasing body of new creative works indebted to Greek tragedy.
Princeton University and
The Catholic University of America
Classical World 98.4 (2005)

SARAH BROWN FERRARIO

ferrario@princeton.edu

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
N.B. All references, save those to the Handel Oreste and the Rameau
Hippolyte et Aricie, are to recordings actually employed in this course. Many
of these works are readily available in multiple other versions, and this list
is not intended to be definitive, save for purposes of documentation.
D. Argento, The Aspern Papers (Dallas Opera 1988), PBS Great Performances (1988), unreleased video recording.
H. Berlioz, Les Troyens, C. Davis, conductor, Philips 416 432-2 (n.d.).
, Les Troyens, J. Levine, conductor (live, Metropolitan Opera,
New York, Oct. 8, 1983, evening performance), 3 laserdiscs, Pioneer Classics (1994).
H. Birtwistle, The Mask of Orpheus, A. Davis and M. Brabbins, conductors (live, Royal Festival Hall, London, Apr. 1112, 1996), NMC Recordings NMC D050 (1997).
M.-A. Charpentier, Mede, W. Christie, conductor, Harmonia Mundi HMC
901139 (1984).
L. Cherubini, Medea, T. Serafin, conductor, EMI Records CMS 7 63625
2 (1990).
21
Because the support for the course was shared between two different divisions of CUA (the School of Music and the Department of Greek and Latin), the net
cost to each division, whether measured in salary or in faculty time, was half what it
would have been to either division alone if a single instructor had taken on the seminar.
Further, the cross-listing of the class essentially meant that each division gained a
course in its schedule in return for the outlay of a half-course of instructor time.
Such calculations worked in the favor of all concerned when the team-teaching arrangements were in the planning stages and helped to hasten the approval of the course.

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G. Enesco, Oedipe, L. Foster, conductor, EMI Records CDS 7 54011 2

(1990).
C. W. von Gluck, Alceste, G. Jones, conductor, Decca 436 234-2 (1956).
, (Neubearbeitet Richard Wagner, 1847), Iphigenie in Aulis, K.
Eichhorn, conductor, Eurodisc 7796-2-RG, dist. BMG Classics (1988).
, Iphignie en Tauride, R. Muti, conductor (live, Teatro alla Scala,
Milan, Mar. 1426, 1992), Sony Classical S2K 52492 (1993).
, Orfeo ed Euridice (Orphe et Euridice), R. Fasano, conductor,
RCA Victor Gold Seal 7896-2-RG (1990, originally released in 1966).
G. F. Handel, Hercules, J. E. Gardiner, conductor, Archiv 2743 004
(1983).
, Oreste, G. Petrou, conductor, MDG 60912732 (2004).
, Semele, J. E. Gardiner, conductor, Erato 2292-45982-2 (1993).
, Xerxes (Serse), J.-C. Malgoire, conductor, CBS 79325 (LP),
Sony 36941 (CD) (1979).
M. J. La Chiusa, Marie-Christine, D. Evans, conductor, RCA Victor
09026-63593-2 (2000).
C. Monteverdi, Orfeo, N. Harnoncourt, conductor, Teldec 8.35020 ZA
(1969).
, Il Ritorno di Ulisse (Ulixes) in Patria, N. Harnoncourt, conductor, Teldec 8.35024 ZB (1971).
W. A. Mozart, Die Zauberflte, H. von Karajan, conductor, Deutsche
Grammophon 410 967-2 (1980).
J. Offenbach, La Belle Helne, M. Plasson, conductor, EMI 2701718
(1985).
, Orphe en Enfers, M. Minkowski, conductor, EMI Classics 7243
5 56725 2 0 (1998).
I. Peri, Euridice, R. de Caro, conductor, Arts Music 47276-2 (1995).
H. Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, N. Harnoncourt, conductor, Teldec 8.42919,
242 959-2 (1983).
J.-P. Rameau, Hippolyte et Aricie, M. Minkowski, conductor, Archiv
Produktion 445-853-2 (1995).
A. Simpson, Agamemnon, R. Garofalo, conductor (live, The Catholic
University of America, Washington, D.C., Apr. 2527, 2003), unreleased
audio recording.
S. Sondheim, The Frogs and Evening Primrose, P. Gemignani, conductor, Nonesuch 79638-2 (2001).
R. Strauss, Elektra, Sir G. Solti, conductor, London 417 345-2 (1967).
I. Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex, S. Ozawa, conductor, J. Taymor, director
(Saito Kinen Festival, Matsumoto, Japan, 1992), Philips Video ASIN 6302993342
(1993).
S. Taneyev, The Oresteia, T. Kolomizheva, conductor, Olympia OCD
195 A+B (1988).
M. Theodorakis, Antigone, A. Chernoushenko, conductor, Intuition Int
3316 2 (2000).
, Electra, M. Theodorakis, conductor, Intuition Int 3312 2 (2000).
, Medea, M. Theodorakis, conductor, Intuition Int 3320 2 (2000).
G. Verdi, Ada, J. Perlea, conductor, RCA Victor 6652-2-RG (1968).
R. Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen = 1. Das Rheingold (Sir G. Solti,
conductor, London 414 101-2 [1984]); 2. Die Walkre (Sir G. Solti, conductor, London 414 105-2 [1984]); 3. Siegfried (Sir G. Solti, conductor,
London 414 110-2 [1984]); 4. Gtterdmmerung (Sir G. Solti, conductor,
London 414 115-2 [1985]).

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APPENDIX A
Abridged Course Syllabus for Greek Tragedy and Opera, Fall 2003
Each numbered block represents one weekly meeting of the seminar.
All ancient literary works and opera libretti were read in English translations; these were all assigned complete unless so marked, and ancient
literature was sometimes assigned more than once if it was relevant to
multiple musical works. Listening assignments, consisting of selected operatic excerpts ranging in total length from c. 20 to 100 minutes (but
most often averaging about 30 to 40 minutes) were provided on separate
handouts, with introductory musical terminology and study questions. Students completed the reading of opera libretti and all listening assignments
by working with reserves in the Music Library.
1. Lecture and Discussion Topics
Course introduction
Greek tragedy and its Roman and Renaissance receptions
The Florentine Camerata and the birth of opera
Some basic musical terms and concepts
Music Library tour and orientation
2. Assignments
Vergil, Georgics 4.453527
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1011 (selections)
I. Peri, Euridice, libretto + listening
C. Monteverdi, Orfeo, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
The Orpheus Story as tragedy and as philosophical and intellectual
operatic source
Peri and Monteverdi: two Orpheus operas
3. Assignments
Vergil, Aeneid 4
H. Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Tragedy and politics
Vergil in Rome and Vergil in the Renaissance
Introduction to the European Baroque
Tragdie lyrique, opra-ballet, and the Masque
Dido and Aeneas in Purcells England
4. Assignments
Sophocles, Women of Trachis
Ovid, Metamorphoses 9 (selections)
G. F. Handel, Hercules, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Hercules narratives: Sophocles Women of Trachis and Ovids Metamorphoses
Handel and Italian opera: artistic responses to ancient narratives
5. Assignments
Euripides, Medea
M.-A. Charpentier, Mede, libretto + listening
L. Cherubini, Medea, libretto + listening

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Lecture and Discussion Topics
Medea as (barbarian?) female in classical Athens
Two operatic Medeas a century apart
6. Assignments
Euripides, Alcestis
Vergil, Georgics 4.453527
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1011 (selections)
C. W. von Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice, libretto + listening
C. W. von Gluck, Alceste, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Another (Orphic?) journey back: the appeal of Alcestis
Gluck and operatic reform
French and Italian opera contrasted
Student Presentation Topics
J. Offenbach, Orphe en Enfers
7. Assignments
Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis
Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris
C. W. von Gluck, Iphignie en Aulide, libretto, no listening
C. W. von Gluck, Iphignie en Tauride, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Euripides two Iphigeneias
Looking back to tragdie lyrique
Student Presentation Topics
G. F. Handel, Semele
G. F. Handel, Xerxes (Serse)
8. Assignments
Euripides, Alcestis
Vergil, Georgics 4.453527
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1011 (selections)
W. Mozart, Die Zauberflte, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Orpheus and Orphism transformed: resurrection stories
Late classical opera: Singspiel and opera buffa
Midterm Exam
9. Assignments
Euripides, Trojan Women
Euripides, Hecuba (selections)
Vergil, Aeneid 1, 2, and 4
Seneca, Trojan Women
H. Berlioz, Les Troyens, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
The fall of Troy and the Trojan tragedy
Grand opera
Student Presentation Topics
J. Offenbach, La Belle Helne
C. Monteverdi, Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria

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10. Assignments
Aeschylus, Oresteia
S. Taneyev, Oresteia, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Aeschylus trilogy and its impact
Russian opera and romanticism
Student Presentation Topics
J. La Chiusa, Marie-Christine
J.-P. Rameau, Hippolyte et Aricie
11. Assignments
Sophocles, Electra
Euripides, Electra
R. Strauss, Elektra, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Sophoclean individualism and the Sophoclean hero
Sophoclean vs. Euripidean drama
Late romantic opera in Germany and the expressionist movement
Student Presentation Topics
M. Theodorakis, Electra
R. Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen
12. Assignments
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Seneca, Oedipus
I. Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
The Stravinsky libretto and its problems
Neoclassicism in the twentieth century
Oedipusand Oedipusfor a new age
Student Presentation Topics
G. Enesco, Oedipe
13. Assignments
Sophocles, Antigone
Euripides, Phoenician Women
M. Theodorakis, Antigone, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Antigone as political figure, ancient and modern
Modern Greeces relationship with ancient Greece
Student Presentation Topics
M. Theodorakis, Medea
G. Verdi, Ada
14. Assignments
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
A. Simpson, Agamemnon, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Can opera claim to be faithful to its source?
Problems of adaptation vs. translation
Greek tragedy and opera: an American composers perspective
Presentation Topics
H. Birtwistle, Mask of Orpheus

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15. Assignments
Aristophanes, Frogs
S. Sondheim, Frogs, libretto + listening
Lecture and Discussion Topics
Aristophanes and his world
Greek comedy as tragic mirror
The legacy of the operatic theatre in the contemporary American
musical
Student Presentation Topics
D. Argento, Aspern Papers
T. de Leeuw, Antigone
APPENDIX B
A Sample Short-Response Assignment
Short-Response Essay 4: Berlioz and the Trojan Tragedy
What we have been calling the Trojan tragedy is a large-scale narrative that evolved over time in Greek (and Roman) literature. Its basic
outlines stretch all the way from the evil visions of Hecuba before the
birth of Paris, through the Trojan War and the large-scale homecoming
narratives of Odysseus and Agamemnon, down even to the deaths of some
of the heroes in old age. We read no fewer than four different treatments
of parts of the Trojan tragedy for our study of Berliozs opera Les
Troyens: Euripides Trojan Women, part of Euripides Hecuba, Senecas
Trojan Women, and excerpts from Vergils Aeneid. The first three of these,
of course, are actual tragic plays; the fourth is an epic poem. Here is
something which Aristotle says about the relationship of epic plot to tragic
plot:
[A poet should] not make an [entire complete] epic structure
into a tragedyby an epic structure I mean one with a
multiplicity of plotsas if, for instance, you were to
make a tragedy out of the entire story of the Iliad. In
the epic poem, owing to its length, each part assumes its
proper magnitude. In the drama [made from an epic] the
result is far from answering to the poets expectation.
The proof is that the poets who have dramatized the whole
story of the fall of Troy, instead of selecting portions
like Euripides [did] . . . either fail utterly or meet with
poor success on the stage.
(Arist. Poet. 18, tr. S. H. Butcher) 22
Considering Aristotles view as your starting-point, evaluate Berliozs
success in creating an opera from a diversity of ancient sources and stories, both tragic and epic. Was Aristotle right about the futility of trying
to dramatize epic, or has Berlioz proven him wrong? How and why?
Some things you might like to consider are the following:
The overall structure of Berliozs plot; act and scene divisions.
The unity or disunity provided by the large number of characters.
The choices of protagonists; Berliozs changes from the ancient source
texts (he was his own librettist for this work).
22
S. H. Butcher, Aristotles Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, with a Critical Text
and a Translation of the Poetics (London and New York 1895).

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Whether Berliozs choices with regard to length, size, and scale add
up, in your opinion, to grandeur, overkill, or inadequacy.
Success on the stage: Why is Les Troyens performed so infrequently?
You may want to consider both practical and aesthetic reasons (recall
the works performance history, too, as discussed in class).
The music: Are there any particularly wonderful or special musical
moments that elevate your impression of the work or relieve lengthy
sections? You should feel free to listen to extra music if this helps
you make your points, although this is not required.
Musicologists generally cite Vergils Aeneid and Euripides Trojan Women
and Hecuba as Berliozs main sources. You may therefore choose to omit
Seneca from your discussion if you like. You must, however, still employ
a variety of arguments based on all three study elements (libretti, music,
and ancient literature) in order to be eligible for full credit.