The intriguing parallels between musical and literary forms have long been a focus of musicological inquiry, particularly in recent debates concerning music’s narrative properties. However, parallels between musical and historical forms and processes remain under-examined. Indeed, while historically-based operas continue to be prominent in the repertoire, there has been little if any attempt to interrogate how the unique structural, temporal, and narrative dimensions of the operatic form might render a representation of the past that is unique in comparison to those in other modes. This dissertation takes up this issue, and probes it on musical and aesthetic levels, asking the following questions: Given recent inquiries into history’s creative nature in historiography, what kind of historical account does opera represent? What elements of historical experience, knowledge, or memory are accessed in these works? How do music’s temporal, dramatic, and narrative dimensions interact with what we presume to be the objective realm of history? And most importantly: Can these works be seriously considered historiographical in any sense? In this dissertation, I investigate these questions with a focus on Canadian historically-based opera specifically. Applying a hermeneutical approach that connects current threads in musicology, narrative theory, theory of the sublime, film theory, and philosophy of history, I define and theorize the powerful discourse that music contributes to Canadian historiography in six of Canada’s most prominent historically-based operas: Harry Somers and Mavor Moore’s Louis Riel (1967); Harry Somers and James Reaney’s Serinette (1991); John Estacio and John Murrell’s Filumena (2005) and Frobisher (2007); and Istvan Anhalt’s Winthrop (1986) and La Tourangelle (1975). The conclusions of this study are, however, not limited to this repertoire. Rather they are applicable to the canon of historically-based works as a whole, and speak directly to some of the most critical and current aesthetic issues in musicology and historiography. As an art form that reopens the space between past and present by reaffirming history’s subjective and temporal nature, and by exploring the ephemerality it shares with living memory, opera validates itself as a truly distinct historiographical mode.

The intriguing parallels between musical and literary forms have long been a focus of musicological inquiry, particularly in recent debates concerning music’s narrative properties. However, parallels between musical and historical forms and processes remain under-examined. Indeed, while historically-based operas continue to be prominent in the repertoire, there has been little if any attempt to interrogate how the unique structural, temporal, and narrative dimensions of the operatic form might render a representation of the past that is unique in comparison to those in other modes. This dissertation takes up this issue, and probes it on musical and aesthetic levels, asking the following questions: Given recent inquiries into history’s creative nature in historiography, what kind of historical account does opera represent? What elements of historical experience, knowledge, or memory are accessed in these works? How do music’s temporal, dramatic, and narrative dimensions interact with what we presume to be the objective realm of history? And most importantly: Can these works be seriously considered historiographical in any sense? In this dissertation, I investigate these questions with a focus on Canadian historically-based opera specifically. Applying a hermeneutical approach that connects current threads in musicology, narrative theory, theory of the sublime, film theory, and philosophy of history, I define and theorize the powerful discourse that music contributes to Canadian historiography in six of Canada’s most prominent historically-based operas: Harry Somers and Mavor Moore’s Louis Riel (1967); Harry Somers and James Reaney’s Serinette (1991); John Estacio and John Murrell’s Filumena (2005) and Frobisher (2007); and Istvan Anhalt’s Winthrop (1986) and La Tourangelle (1975). The conclusions of this study are, however, not limited to this repertoire. Rather they are applicable to the canon of historically-based works as a whole, and speak directly to some of the most critical and current aesthetic issues in musicology and historiography. As an art form that reopens the space between past and present by reaffirming history’s subjective and temporal nature, and by exploring the ephemerality it shares with living memory, opera validates itself as a truly distinct historiographical mode.

<p><italic>The Persistence of Smoke</italic> is a documentary opera. The libretto is based on interviews with various individuals related to the former Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company headquarters in Durham, North Carolina.</p><p>The cigarette industry once dominated Durham, but saw its decline in the 1990s as the link between cancer and smoking became increasingly clear. The American Tobacco Company and the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company were once the biggest cigarette manufacturers in the city. As these companies left Durham, their factories and tobacco warehouses first sat vacant, but were gradually preserved and transformed into new spaces for offices, apartments and restaurants.</p><p>This project focused on the former Liggett and Myers headquarters along Main Street, a collection of buildings now known as "West Village". I interviewed current and former Durham residents who had a connection with these buildings, including local business representatives, community leaders, former Liggett employees, historians, current residents in the downtown area, municipal urban planners, journalists, and an architect. These interviews were given to local playwright John Justice, who created a libretto based on the themes that emerged.</p><p>The opera's story focuses on Kevin, an architect about to unveil his visionary master plan for redeveloping several defunct cigarette factories in an unnamed city. As Kevin leaves his newly renovated apartment for the press conference, he is confronted by his estranged father Curtis, a former cigarette worker who desperately wants to reconcile and reconnect, deliriously recalling the glory days of tobacco and the money that followed.</p> / Dissertation

Diss.--Philosophie--New York (N.Y.)--the graduate faculty in music, 2001. / Bibliogr. p. 515-536.

Thesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-102).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2009. / Advisor: Jeanne Swack. Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-311). Also available on the Internet.

This thesis is a study of the life and works of Thomas D'Urfey (1653- 1721), a prolific writer of -plays, poetry and operas during the Restoration period. It places him in the context of the theatre of his time and the difficult conditions in which he worked, showing how obscurity of birth and lack of education affected him in his burning desire for success and financial reward. His relationships with great men illustrate the role of the patron in Augustan society, and his long career in the theatre illuminates the principal developments in English drama between 1676 and 1710. The Introduction provides a brief critical survey of the current state of Restoration comedy criticism and of D'Urfey's place in that criticism. Chapters One and Three are primarily biographical; Chapters Two, Four and Five study his plays; Chapter Six takes a broader view of his non-dramatic writing, and Chapter Seven examines his last three comedies and discusses them as precursors of the novel. The final section of Chapter Seven makes some comparisons between Thomas D'Urfey and other dramatists of the period, especially John Dryden, and argues that there is a special interest in the struggle for recognition of an author generally regarded as a failure. The Conclusion summarises the arguments in the thesis for this re-assessment of D'Urfey's interest and importance. Throughout the thesis D'Urfey's work is shown to have many rewards for the modern reader.

An in depth reflection on my approach to directing theater, particularly the attitudes and exercises I utilize to foster a positive environment for actors and designers to do their best artistic work. This thesis sites specific examples from the productions I directed as a Master of Fine Arts student in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. / text

Not available / text

Regina is a one-act opera based on the true story of Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the Jewish faith, in 1935. Jonas struggled to gain this recognition and subsequently perished in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. It was only in 1991 that another woman uncovered the papers that proved Jonas' legacy. This opera follows Regina, waiting to be uncovered in the piles of paper records locked away in East Berlin, and through vignettes of her past. This is paralleled with the story of Anna, who is desperately fighting against her Nazi father's legacy. Anna believes that, if she can uncover stories like Regina's, she will free herself of her father's torment. Regina is similarly haunted by her mother's ghost, whose discouraging words have shaped Regina's lifelong self-doubt. Both Regina and Anna need to be set free. This opera uses leitmotifs to differentiate the two main characters, but these themes are also often used as signifiers of the common struggles that both characters embody and represent. As well, they employ rhythmic and melodic styles that pervade both the vocal and instrumental parts throughout the opera, thus unifying the characters' goals. Because of the fact that the opera takes place in multiple time periods (sometimes simultaneously) the various choices of instrumentation and harmonic material often reflect these temporal shifts (for example, the accordion is often associated with Regina's path to ordination, her relationship with her rabbi, and a time of joy and calm before the war.) In addition, melodic and rhythmic motifs are used to represent specific as well as general events, such as the three-note 'ordination' theme and the two-chord repeated motif in the piano. The overall extended tonal style contributes to a largely lyrical setting of Maya Rabinovitch's libretto.