COURSE: PERFORMING SUBJECTIVITY - Opera and Storytelling ANTH G6186.  PERFORMING SUBJECTIVITY IN AN AGE OF REVOLUTION: OPERA AND 
STORYTELLING.  308 Lewisohn, Thurs: 4:10-6 pm.  Prof. Combs-Schilling. 
Office hours for this class are immediately after class in Lewisohn or 
in 956 Schermerhorn by appointment. mec3@columbia.edu

The course examines opera performances as a site for negotiating 
changes in images of persons, gender, political authority and community 
as eighteenth century Europe headed towards revolution.  By focusing 
broader analytical frameworks (e.g., those of Butler, Eco, Feldman, 
Geertz, Hull and Tambiah) on five eighteenth century operas, expansive 
light can be shed on the potential potency of lyric storytelling to be 
a generative site of culture.  We will explore ways in which particular 
operas expanded the range of alternatives available to individuals and 
communities as well as ways in which prominent political cultural 
filters reduced ways in which particular operas could be understood.   
Included in our exploration will be the issue of how these operas 
resonate now and whether any of them still challenge images of gender, 
persons and community.

This is an interdisciplinary course designed for those who are 
interested in the role collective performances can play in producing 
cultural imaginations-narrative and lyric.  It is intended to appeal to 
graduate students from a wide range of disciplines, including: 
anthropology, drama, English, gender studies, German, history, Italian, 
literary studies and music as well as those who specialize in 
eighteenth century studies.  Cultural rather than musicological 
approaches are emphasized.  While musical expertise is not demanded, it 
is a most welcome addition.  Specific student projects will be designed 
according to the individual student's own interests and expertise.

The five operas to be explored are Thomas Arne and Metastasio's 
Artaxerses (1762 London), Paisiello and Petrosellini's Barber of 
Seville (1783 Vienna), Paisiello and Casti's King Theodore (1784 
Vienna) as well as Mozart and Da Ponte's Marriage of Figaro (1786 
Vienna) and Cosi fan Tutte (Women are Like That) (1789 Vienna).   We 
will see Marriage and Cosi at the Metropolitan Opera House as well as 
one other opera of the student's choice.
	
Course limited to 15 students.   Those interested should e-mail Prof. 
Combs-Schilling at mec3@columbia.edu with a few sentences expressing 
their interest in the course and their areas of expertise.  All 
interested students must attend the first class.

