Module Catalogue 2024/25

MUS3066 : Opera on the Move (Inactive)

MUS3066 : Opera on the Move (Inactive)

  • Inactive for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Charlotte Bentley
  • Owning School: Arts & Cultures
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System
Pre-requisite

Modules you must have done previously to study this module

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co-Requisite

Modules you need to take at the same time

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

• To introduce students to the history of opera beyond Europe and beyond the opera house
• To consider the historical relationships between music and other art forms
• To encourage an understanding of critical approaches to mobility studies, global history, the historiography of opera, and music and material culture
• To facilitate student engagement with a range of art music and related historical popular musics
• To develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills

Outline Of Syllabus

This module will provide an introduction to operatic mobility, examining how opera has moved and been transformed in various contexts, and how those transformations give us insights into the history of music, people and places. We will explore how opera has been involved in processes of colonisation, creolisation and globalisation, as well as how adaptations of opera and aspects of opera’s material culture emerged from complex gender, economic and race relations.

The first part of the module will explore opera’s geographical movements beyond Europe from c.1750 to the present and their socio-cultural contexts. The second part of the module, meanwhile, will take a different approach to mobility, by examining how opera has been adapted, reimagined and absorbed in wider cultural life beyond the opera house. We will use primary sources including sheet music arrangements, operatic souvenirs, poetry and novels, T.V. adverts and films, to explore how opera has been transformed for different social and cultural ends.

Learning Outcomes

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will have gained:
• Familiarity with a variety of approaches to studying opera and its significance to people, places and politics
• A critical understanding of key concepts, such as mobility, colonialism, globalisation, migration and creolisation
• Knowledge of and the tools to explore the complex interrelationships between political, social, geographical and cultural factors
• Practical experience of researching, analysing and curating sources that relate to operatic mobility

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:
• Locate primary sources by using digital databases
• Analyse primary sources critically (e.g. poems, extracts from novels, and nineteenth-century popular sheet music)
• Evaluate the relationships between these primary source materials and historical contexts
• Apply historical and historiographical techniques learned during the module in their own independent work
• Use a suitable platorm to create digital exhibits

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture112:0022:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching71:007:00seminars
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesWorkshops42:008:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesDrop-in/surgery30:301:30drop in tutorials
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study1161:30161:30Independent research, study and assessment preparation
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The course will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops. The lectures will introduce key concepts, debates, historical and cultural contexts, and musical works. The seminars, for which students will complete readings and worksheets, will offer the opportunity to discuss core issues in detail and for students to share ideas with each other. The workshops, meanwhile, will focus on introducing students to the relevant databases that will allow them to locate primary sources for their exhibitions, as well as on giving them the skills to use the software they will need to use to curate their digital exhibitions. Students will receive verbal formative feedback on their ideas for the exhibition rationale and their early work on the exhibition during the workshops.

Reading Lists

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Written exercise2M301500-word rationale for an exhibition related to one of the module’s key themes. To be submitted mid-semester.
Design/Creative proj2A70A digital exhibition comprising 8-10 exhibits and accompanying critical labels (totalling c.2000 words).
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Both assessments will test students’ understanding of the conceptual content of the course and will create opportunities for independent research. However, they will allow students to gain different technical and communication skills that will be useful to them as they progress in their careers, whether they decide to move into the workplace or continue with postgraduate studies. The written exercise will examine students’ ability to critique ideas from scholarly literature and develop a well-structured rationale for the digital exhibition they will curate. The digital exhibition will examine students’ ability to locate, select, and analyse appropriate audio-visual materials. They will need to present their scholarly research in a way that is compelling and informative for a more general audience.

Students will receive verbal formative feedback on their ideas for the exhibition rationale and their early work on the exhibition during the workshops.

Timetable

Past Exam Papers

General Notes

N/A

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Disclaimer

The information contained within the Module Catalogue relates to the 2024 academic year.

In accordance with University Terms and Conditions, the University makes all reasonable efforts to deliver the modules as described.

Modules may be amended on an annual basis to take account of changing staff expertise, developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback. Module information for the 2025/26 entry will be published here in early-April 2025. Queries about information in the Module Catalogue should in the first instance be addressed to your School Office.