Performing Italy

Studies the role of the performing arts in Italian cultural and national identity (1600-1900). Navigates the intersections between performance and political histories. Studies the crossroads of personal and collective identity, issues of gender relations, factors of agency and exclusion, and the instruments of power that make performance possible. Readings and listenings include works by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Puccini, Verdi, and others. Thematic units featured: the myth of opera, opera and empire, affect and history, women's musical education, gender and the 'femme fatale,' nationalism and the stage, and the performing arts today. Taught in English through the Duke in Bologna program.