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Music 396
Mozart, Opera, & Amadeus
Final Exam Study Guide
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The Final Exam—Overview
The Final Exam is a final summary (in essay format) of the work
you did in this course. It will include a set of short essays (Part One) on important
topics we have studied as well as a critique of the
movie Amadeus (Part Two) in which you
draw on what you’ve learned throughout the course in your research, your
projects, and our class meetings. While Part One of the Exam is
closed-book, Part Two will be open-book; you may bring any materials you like to
assist you in writing Part Two. We will start the Exam with all books closed for
Part One, but once you hand in Part One, you may open your books and begin Part Two.
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The Final Exam—Part One
In Part One of the Final Exam I will provide a short list of 16 important topics
covered in this
course (genres, cities, theaters, operas, composers, divas, librettists, playwrights and other
important people). From the list you will choose 12 topics and write a short
essay (just a few sentences—really!)
about each one. You should not spend more than five minutes on any one of these, which means
you will provide only the most important details about each one.
To assist you in preparing for Part One, I have provided a comprehensive list of topics below.
The short list on the exam will be drawn from this list. Most of these are fairly straightforward,
but for each of Mozart’s major operas (see list below),
you will want to know something about its history, characters, and plot. This applies especially
to Mozart operas we saw in video format. If I list a major opera, I will ask specifically for its
history OR its plot; if I list a character, I will tell you which opera they come from.
- Genres
- Opera seria
- Opera buffa
- Dramma giocoso
- Singspiel
- Ballad Opera
- Opéra comique
- Cities
- Salzburg (Peter)
- Vienna (Cory)
- Munich/Mannheim (Chad)
- Paris (Erin)
- Milan (Neil)
- Rome (Patrice)
- Bologna (Benny)
- Prague (Leslie)
- Major Mozart Operas & Important Characxters
- Idomeneo—opera seria
- Die Entführung aus dem Serail—Singspiel
- Belmonte
- Constanze
- Osmin
- Pasha Selim
- Le nozze di Figaro—opera buffa
- Figaro
- Sasanna
- Count Almaviva
- Countess Almaviva
- Cherubino
- Don Basilio
- Dr. Bartolo
- Marcellina
- Il Don Giovanni—opera buffa (dramma giocoso)
- Don Giovanni
- Leporello
- Donna Anna
- Il Commendatore
- Don Ottavio
- Donna Elvira
- Zerlina
- Masetto
- Così fan tutte—opera buffa
- Fiordiligi
- Dorabella
- Ferrando
- Guglielmo
- Don Alfonso
- Despina
- Die Zauberflöte—Singspiel
- Tamino
- Pamina
- Papageno
- Papagena
- Sarastro
- Queen of the Night
- Monostatos
- La clemenza di Tito—opera seria
- Other Mozart Operas
- Mitridate—opera seria
- La finta giardiniera—opera buffa (dramma giocoso)
- Zaïde—Singspiel (Peter)
- Bastien und Bastienne—Singspiel
- The Philosopher’s Stone—Singspiel (Chad)
- Other Important Operas and Composers
- Pergolesi & La serva padrona—opera buffa (Chad)
- Galuppi & Il mondo alla roversa—opera buffa (dramma giocoso)
- Piccinni & La buona figliola—opera buffa (Benny)
- Cimarosa & Il matrimonio segreto—opera buffa (Benny)
- John Gay & The Beggar’s Opera—ballad opera (Cory)
- Rousseau & Le devin du village—opéra comique (Patrice)
- Librettists and Playwrights
- Lorenzo da Ponte (Peter)
- Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (Patrice)
- Carlo Goldoni (Cory)
- Divas
- Nancy Storace (Leslie)
- Adriana Ferrarese del Bene (Erin)
- Aloysia Lange (Leslie)
- Theaters
- Prague National Theater (Neil)
- The Burgtheater (Erin)
- Theater auf der Wieden (Neil)
- Important People
- Prince-Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo (Neil)
- Constanze Mozart (Leslie)
- Emanuel Schikaneder (Patrice)
- Antonio Salieri (Chad)
- Caterina Cavalieri (Erin)
- Leopold Mozart (Cory)
- Baron Gottfried van Swieten (Peter)
- Giuseppe Bonno and Count Orsini-Rosenberg (Benny)
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The Final Exam—Part Two
Part Two of the Final Exam is a final essay summary of the work
you did in this course. In this essay you will write a critique (NOT a review)
of the movie Amadeus in which you
draw on everything you’ve learned throughout the course—in your research, your
projects, and our classroom sessions. I am most interested in the ways your
research on Projects One through Four (especially Project Four) influences
your understanding of Amadeus. Since each of you have pursued different project
topics, your written critiques should look very different from each other.
Here are some questions to guide you as you prepare for Part Two of the Exam:
- How accurate is the portrayal of your Project Four character in Amadeus, both
in factual details and in the personality portrayed? Which aspects are factual and
which have been altered?
- What specific aspects of your research for Projects One through Three influenced your
understanding of Amadeus?
- How accurate is the portrayal of Mozart himself in Amadeus, both
in factual details and in the personality portrayed?
- In spite of all the changes, half-truths, and completely fictional scenes, why
is Amadeus so gripping in its portrayal of Mozart and Classical Vienna?
Part Two of the Final Exam will be open-book. It might help to think of this portion as
a short paper that you write in class—you can do your research and even an outline
ahead of time, but you write it out during the final exam period.
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Page created 11/27/02 by Mark Harbold—last updated
12/04/02.