The Changing Face of Opera: From Mozart to Wagner

Music scholar and author Dr. Jeffrey Langford brings his extensive research and unique perspective on the stylistic development of opera.

He traces some of the most important changes in the world of serious (as opposed to comic) opera over the hundred years from approximately 1775 (when Mozart started writing serious opera) to about 1875 (when Wagner’s Ring Cycle was completed). Examine not only changes of musical style and changes in singing, but also the underlying development of operatic philosophy that led to a continuous re-evaluation of what it meant to combine drama with music.