FREN 450 - Atelier lyrique: poésie, chanson, opéra

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
This course examines French and Francophone poetry, chanson and opera as aesthetic objects but also as occasions for vocal mastery and song. Students will study medieval troubadours, Renaissance poets, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Francophone poets and also learn the phonetic alphabet and choose selected poems for improved diction and dramatic reading skills. Songs by Trenet, Piaf, Brel, Hardy, Cabrel, and others will be analyzed but also taught and practiced in Conservatory settings. Prevost’s Manon Lescaut will be studied as a literary text as well as operatic adaptations by Puccini and Massenet. Taught in French; no formal knowledge of music required.

Prerequisites: FREN 309, 321, or the equivalent.