ORPHEUS ON THE OPERATIC STAGE
Professor Rebekka Sandmeier, musicologist, South African College of Music, University of Cape Town
Monday 25–Friday 29 January 9.15 am COURSE FEES R575; Staff and students R290
This course offers a history of opera from about 1600 to today by looking at various settings of the Orpheus myth. We will investigate why the myth is suitable for musical settings and how it has been adapted for the operatic stage in the past 450 years. Having discussed the original myth in the first lecture, we will look in detail at four operas, starting with Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo of 1607 and closing with Neo Muyanga’s Euridice of 2026. For each opera we will discover how the myth is adapted for the operatic stage and what role the music plays in telling it. The lectures are complemented by extensive audio-visual extracts from the operas discussed.
Lecture titles
1. The myth and its suitability for opera
2. Claudio Monteverdi: L’Orfeo (1607)
3. Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (1762)
4. Jacques Offenbach: Orphée aux enfers (1858)
5. Neo Muyanga: Euridice (2026)
Recommended reading/viewing
Participants are encouraged to watch the operas discussed in each lecture and read the articles on them in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/performance.aspx?itemid=1602831177