MHL 603 – PREPARATION
7
(F-11)
Due
7 November via Email
Please read
the following:
Bertolt Brecht, “Modern Theater is Epic
Theater” (notes to the opera Mahagonny)
Robert Ashley, "A New Kind of
Opera" in Outside of Time (2009)
The readings
are on reserve in the library and posted on the website.
Please watch
(or listen to) scenes from the following operas:
Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach. The
DVD contains interviews with Glass and Robert Wilson, the director, plus ten or
so exceprts from different parts of the opera. Watch
as much as you can.
Robert Ashley, Perfect Lives. Watch only
the first scene ("The Park") and the next but last ("The
Church").
I left
multiple DVDs on reserve. (Two of the Perfect
Lives DVDs contain only the assigned scenes.) Also you should read the synopses of both
operas posted online.
Write a
couple of paragraphs in response to one
of the following questions:
1. Compare Brecht’s views in this essay with the
opinions that Philip Glass and Robert Wilson express in the interviews on the Einstein DVD. (Look especially at tracks 3 and 4.) How are their views similar to Brecht’s, how
different? Discuss two or more scenes
from Einstein on the Beach and
explain which aspects are or are not "epic." Discuss a scene from Perfect Lives, explaining which are or
are not "epic."
2. According to Robert Ashley, what are the
problems with text setting in traditional opera as practiced by American
composers? What are the problems with plot? How does he attempt to overcome
these problems in Perfect Lives? How do Glass and Wilson attempt to overcome
these problems in Einstein on the Beach?
Give specific examples from what you see and hear on the DVDs.
Send your
paragraph (or two) to john.spitzer@notes.sfcm.edu
by Monday 7 Nov at