In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about director’s theatre or, more commonly, the German term regietheater. Regietheater describes the artistic license granted to directors to freely interpret a play or opera, changing locale, time-period, and other elements often to make a contemporary or even political point. But perhaps regietheater is just an extreme version of the phenomenon of subsequent performance (to use director Jonathan Miller’s term) by which fresh interpretations keep artworks alive. This course explores different interpretations of masterpieces to see what those interpretations reveal about the underlying masterpieces as well as the creators and people interpreting them, how they show us new angles, and whether they enhance or damage the canon.

This class will be delivered online via the online platform Zoom. Enrolling students need to ensure they have an email, a reliable internet connection, microphone/speakers and access to a tablet, smartphone or computer.

COURSE OUTLINE

Weekly topics include performance traditions of Shakespeare plays such as:

• Various productions of Hamlet
• Opera productions that go beyond what the creators envisaged
• Stagings of concert works, such as Deborah Warner’s Messiah
• Different choreographies, say of classics like Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and even film remakes.