This course studies several operas by such composers as Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, and Britten. Emphasis will be placed on the historical context of the opera’s setting, literary sources, and their appropriation for dramatizing changing cultural values. Musical and theatrical conventions will be explored as the artistic techniques selected to portray changing cultural concepts from the 17th through 20th centuries such as revolution, nationalism, colonialism, and modernism.