Join Daniel Balsam and Chris Stacey for their musical series: Coda Clash. Coda Clash is part educational, part entertainment, and entirety fun. Dan and Chris present their analysis of a composer and musical form around the evening’s theme. Through the use of argumentation, and audio and video clips, they leave the final judgement of what opera wins the Coda Clash up to the audience.

Musical Compositions: Dr. Atomic and Nixon in China, John Adams

Theme: Historical Events

Coda Clash: How does each opera represent History? How do the musical scores of John Adams intersect with the libretto’s representation of historical events and are they effective at producing historical musical commentary? Taking into account all the constituent elements of the operatic production—score, libretto, staging, costume—which opera uses history to create the most memorable impression on the audience?

Approach: Can we analyze the librettos and scores and staging as specific narrative types such as Representational (romance), or Reductionist (tragedy), or Integrative (comedy), or Negational (satire)? Is each opera a single narrative type or a combination of types? Are the narrative types consistent within the operas or is it possible that there are tensions between the operatic elements when it comes to how history is represented?

Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Time: 6:30PM Central

Cost: Free

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Recommended Reading

Nixon and Mao, Margaret MacMillan

The Kissinger Transcripts, National Security Archive

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin

The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes