Fall 2012 Offering:

Baroque Jewels II

A Continuing Comparative Study of Operas by Handel, Vivaldi

and Other Baroque Masters on Related Themes

(13 weeks beginning on September 19/20)

This unique course will continue the study of selected works of the two great composers of Italian Baroque opera, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), as well as of two other baroque masters Monteverdi and Gluck, to compare the approaches of each to operas on a similar subject or libretto.

The core of this course, as in Baroque Jewels I, will be a comparison of such varied interpretations of the same work by Handel and Vivaldi as the following:

                Handel’s Giustino (1737) and Vivaldi’s Il Giustino (1724)

                Handel’s Partenope (1730) and Vivaldi’s Rosmira Fedele (1735) *                                                                   

                Handel’s Ariodante (1735) and Vivaldi’s Ginevra (1735)

Additionally, the course will examine how baroque composers have themselves reworked or completely rewritten their own earlier works on the same subject.  Among these will be the following:

                                Handel, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Naples, 1708); Acis and Galatea (London, 1718)

                                Vivaldi, Farnace (Pavia, 1730); Farnace (1738, Ferrara)

                                Vivaldi, Orlando Finto Pazzo (Venice, 1714); Orlando Furioso (Venice, 1727)

                                Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice (Vienna, 1762); Orphee et Euridice (Paris, 1774) *

As time permits, the course will also examine varied settings of libretti by Pietro Metastasio, beginning with settings of Ezio by Handel (in 1731) and Gluck (in 1750), concluding with settings by more than twenty composers of his most popular libretto, L’Olimpiade, receiving numerous revivals in this Olympic year.

*N.B. With an eye to the highly anticipated Boston Baroque performance of Handel’s Partenope in October, this delightful “anti-heroic” opera will receive special attention. In addition, the legend of Orfeo will have an expanded focus by examining also Claudio Monteverdi’s groundbreaking masterpiece of 1600, Orfeo, to be performed by the Boston Early Music Festival in late November.

Baroque Jewels I is not a prerequisite; Baroque Jewels II will enchant on its own. Come join us for a fall full of baroque treats

Printable Version of Baroque Jewels II

Register for Baroque Jewels II