In this course we explore, in roughly chronological order, a sample of operas from the Baroque period (ca. 1600-1750) considered in their historical and social contexts of production, transmission, and reception. Although great attention will be given to the first decades of opera’s extraordinary development (Peri, Caccini, Landi, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Cesti), ample time will also be devoted to works written at the end of the seventeenth-century in Italy (Scarlatti), France (Lully), and England (Purcell), and, finally, to the beginning of the next century, with Handel and Rameau in particular. A particular focus of the course will be the investigation of text and music issues, in conjunction with that of rhetoric and the so-called affections, involving discussion of the use of the body in the actual staging of the operas. We will look at various contemporary productions of Baroque operas, by discussing directorial choices and issues of performance practice, in relationship to what we know about the visual aspect of operatic stagings during the Baroque period. We will aim at understanding why some of these operas, after being forgotten for long, have been revived in the twentieth century, becoming more and more popular in recent years. INSTRUCTOR: Mauro Calcagno. TEACHING ASSISTANT: Carlo Lanfossi