Welcome to Two Masterpieces Times Three.   Drama has often served as the inspiration for other art forms. In this course we will look at:  

Two masterpieces of drama: 

• "Salome" the play by Oscar Wilde (week 1);  

• "Woyzeck" the play by Georg Büchner (week 4); 

and their realization in film and modern opera.  

Please see the  Course Books page about acquiring copies of the plays.

The films are: 

• "Salomé" with Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain;  "Salome" with Alla Nazimova (week 2); 

• "Woyzeck" by Werner Herzog, with Klaus Kinski (week 5);

The operas are: 

• "Salome" by Richard Strauss (week 3); 

• "Wozzeck" by Alban Berg (week 6) . 

Besides in-depth discussion and analysis of each of the plays we'll consider visualization of the characters as a guide to viewing selections from the films and operas based on them. This will include some comparisons of the plays and their main characters, and also of the films and operas.