This course is an introduction to the history and traditions, artists and institutions of the performing arts in Vienna as a basis for writing reviews and criticism for potential publication in The Vienna Review. Students will learn the principles of professional arts criticism and apply these to current events in theater, music, or visual arts. Students will attend at least four performances and exhibitions and learn to capture in vivid, well-crafted prose, the essence and success of an arts event.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
• research and prepare for reviews and interviews in the time available.
• apply skills of observation to an arts event, expanding their descriptive vocabulary and continuing the development of their own, independent writing voice.
• apply with some skill and security the principles of professional arts criticism, using the tools of creative non-fiction in making a disciplined and convincing argument.
• Identify and analyze expectations of professional writers in the industry, as well as what steps they need to go through to develop their own writing to this level.
Method of presentation:
Seminar; field work, research and interviews
Required work and form of assessment:
The course surveys theater, music, the visual arts, and other cultural events in Vienna. Class time includes lectures and discussion of the principles of professional arts criticism and is accompanied by selected readings that provide an introduction to the artists, ideas and events that have shaped Viennese culture as well as an analysis of representative examples of good criticism from various sources.
Students will be required to attend and review four different types of arts events, conducting interviews and researching the context and history of the work. Written work will be due on the first class of the week following the event. Students are graded on a grasp of the cultural context and how successfully each article achieves its journalistic aim. There will also be in-class assignments to test formal skills.
content:
The course will give students a grounding in Viennese culture and break down the process of preparing for and covering arts events into manageable steps and skill-building exercises, including conducting research and interviews, note taking, techniques of description and portraiture, selection of detail, vignette, narrative, and structure. Students learn how to combine observation, interviews and research using the tools of fiction in the service of fact to write reviews of arts events for potential publication in The Vienna Review, Vienna’s English-language newspaper. Students will receive step-by-step practical guidance to develop a clear and informed critical perspective that is well argued and well evidenced and that is also a pleasure to read.
The course includes lecture and discussion of the traditions and principles of professional arts criticism accompanied by readings and analysis of representative examples from various sources.
Assignments include attending current arts events in theater, music, or visual art, and conducting background research and interviews with directors, curators, performers, or relevant scholars, learning what to look for, what questions to ask and how to take good notes. Assignments will also include researching the context and history of the work as well as why it matters and recreating what it was like to be at the event through the use of well observed detail, giving readers insights on the impact and quality of the concept and execution, individual works or performances and the production as a whole.
Structure of Classes
Week I – Culture and Place:
1st Class: Introduction to Arts Criticism
Goals, elements; the experience of art; examples
2nd Class: Aesthetics in Vienna
Readings: Clive James, Cultural Amnesia – Introduction: Vienna.
Paul Hofmann, “The Roots of Ambivalence,” (from The Viennese) Marjorie Perloff, “Seductive Vienna”, (from The Vienna Paradox) George Orwell, “Why I Write”, from Collected Essays (1961)
Week II - City of Stages, Pt. I – “Alles nur Theater”
1st Class: Performing Culture; traditions of theater in Vienna; “Burgtheater Deutsch”
2nd Class: Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, Max Reinhardt, Thomas Bernhardt
Readings: New York Times: “Bernard Shaw Snubs England,” Pygmalion premieres at the
Hofburgtheater, Vienna, Oct 16, 1913; “The Modest Shaw Again,” (23.11.13) Carl Schorske, “Politics and the Psyche: Schnitzler and Hofmannstal”
(from Fin de Siecle Vienna)
Dardis McNamee: “Jelinek’s Rechnitz: The Horror of Silence” (June, 2010)
Carlin Romano, “Thomas Bernhard, Literary Prize Fighter”, Vienna Review, Mar. 2011. Originally published in the The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 2010.
Kenneth Tynan, “Dimmed Debut” Mother Courage, Berthold Brecht, English-language premiere, (1955); “Dramatic Capital of Europe: Berlin,” (1956)
Week III - City of Stages Pt. II: Reviewing Theater
1st Class: Preparation
The play, the production, the background
2nd Class: Writing the Review
What to look for, how to take notes, Choosing an angle, structuring the story
Readings:
Arthur Schnitzler, Traumnovelle (Dream Story), 1926. Clive James, “Arthur Schnitzler” from Cultural Amnesia Peter Schaefer, Amadeus (1981)
Vincent Canby, “Salieri, Still a Perfect Prism for Mozart’s Genius,” (2000)
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
Traumnovelle, by Arthur Schnitzler, Theater an der Josefstadt Sept 29, 30
Amadeus, by Peter Shaffer, Theater an der Josefstadt Sept 11, 13, 17, 22.
Der Färber und sein Zwillingsbruder, Johann Nestroy, Wiener Volkstheater, premiere Oct. 14.
Week IV - Vienna: City of Music - Pt. 1
1st Class: The Opera
What makes Viennese opera Viennese: composers, houses, traditions The role of music in Viennese culture
2nd Class: Covering the opera
Readings: Alan Rich, “Introduction,” Simon & Schuster Listener’s Guide to Opera (1980).
Alex Ross, “The Golden Age: Strauss, Mahler and the Fin de Siecle,” from
The Rest is Noise (2007)
Cynthia Peck, “Flawed Beauty, Fatal Innocence”, a review of Billy Budd at the
Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna Review, March, 2011). Librettos for works to be reviewed.
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
Fidelio, Wiener Staatsoper Oct 20, 22, 27. (Regie: Otto Schenk) Turn of the Screw, B. Britten, Theater an der Wien Sept 24, 27; Salome, R. Strauss, Volksoper Oct. 15, 18; Staatsoper, Oct 22, 25, 30.
Operetta Review: Wiener Blut, J. Strauss, Wiener Volksoper Oct 10, 17.
Die Csárdásfürstin, E. Kalman, Wiener Volksoper Oct. 22
Die lustige Witwe, F. Lehar, Wiener Volksoper, Oct 8, 29.
Week V - City of Music - Pt. 2 The Concert Stage
1st Class: The Context
The Composers
The Culture
Performance traditions
2nd Class: Bringing music alive on the page
Readings: G.B. Shaw, “The Point of View” (Preface to London Music, 1888-9) Hans Fantal, “Land of the Waltz,”
in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley (1992) pp. 38-42
Lawerence Kramer, “Crisis and Memory,” from Why Classical Music Still Matters (2007). Marjorie Perloff, “From the Ringstrasse to the King’s Road: Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage,” from The Vienna Paradox (2003)
Alan Rich, “Schubert Finished and Unfinished” in So I’ve Heard (2006).
Reviews: To be announced.
Week VI - Mid Term (an essay, or a prepared review written in class) Week VII – The Heuriger, the Wienerlied and the Cabaret
1st Class: Of Taverns and Tyrants: Satire as rebellion, Three themes: Nostalgia, Decadence and Death
2nd Class: Wiener Kabarett
The 1920s
Post-War Vienna: Helmut Qualtinger, Gerhard Bronner, Georg Kreisler
‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’: The lawsuit
Today: Michael Niavarani, Oliver Vollmann, Theater L.E.O., etc
Readings: Franz Endler, “The Brothers Schrammel,” and “The Viennese Popular Song,” (in Vienna, A Guide to Its Music and Musicians, 1989, pp.73-81)
Paul Hofmann, “Wine Mystique,” (The Viennese, 1988, pp.14-19) Alan Levy, “The Law of the Heuriger,”
(in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley, 1992, pp.44-47) Dardis McNamee, “Vienna’s Ol’ Time Songfest” (Vienna Review, 11/09) Friedrich Torberg, Tante Jolisch and the Decline of the West in Anecdotes
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
Antonia Lersch’s “Wienerlied Seminar,” Theater L.E.O, (www.theaterleo.at)
“Unter den Teppich” at the Kabarett Simpl (www.simpl.at/spielplan.php)
Lucy McEvil at the 3-raum Anatomietheater, (http://3raum.or.at/) Any performances by those who appeared as part of the “Wien Hean” Wienerlied Festival 2011 (http://www.weanhean.at/) Oliver Vollmann as “Herr Kasperl,” at 3-raum Anatomietheater, (http://3raum.or.at/)
Week VIII – City of Ideas and Images - Pt. I
1st Class: Art and Design in the18th Century
Maria Theresa; Joseph II Fischer von Erlach
2nd Class: The 19th Century: Biedermeier to the Ringstrasse Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Friedrich von Amerling, et al Domesticity, elegance and Gemütlichkeit
The ‘historicism’ of the Ringstrasse
Readings: John Berger , Ways of Seeing (1972)
Carl Schorske, “The Ringstrasse, It’s Critics and the Birth of Urban
Modernism,” in Fin de Siecle Vienna, (1980) Ch. 2. Martina Pippal, A Short History of Art in Vienna, (2001).
Week IX – City of Ideas and Images - Pt. II
1st Class: Art and Design traditions Pt. II
Gustav Klimt, Otto Wagner and the Jugendstil movement
2nd Class: Wien Modern: Vienna Between the Wars
Haus Wittgenstein
Readings: Alan Janik and Stephen Toulmin, “Culture and Critique, Social Criticism and the Limits of Artistic Expression,” Wittgenstein’s Vienna (1973) Ch.4. Carl Schorske, “Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego,”
Fin de Siecle Vienna, (1980) Ch. 5.
Bruno Munari, Design as Art, Penguin Modern Classics (2009).
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
“Makart - An Artist rules the City,” Kunstlerhaus, through Oct.16. Makart – Artist of the Sense, Lower Belvedere, through Oct 9.
“Zwischentöne – die Sammlung Forberg” at the Albertina, from Oct 21.
Amerling Collection at the Liechtenstein Museum. Permanent.
The Vienna Secession (Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka), Belvedere. Permanent
Other exhibitions, to be announced.
Week X – Post War Art & Politics
1st Class: Restoration and Restitution
Labors of love and identity: the Staatsoper, Stephensdom and more. “Farewell Adele” and other cultural crises
2nd Class: Hrdlicka, Hundertwasser and Nitsch; Blickfang at the MAK
Readings: To be selected
Reviews: “Hundertwasser - The Art Of The Green Path,” through Nov. 6. (www.kunsthauswien.com)
“Josef Hoffmann: Inspirations,” through Dec. 31. (www.mak.at) Additional exhibitions, to be announced.
Week XI – Review
Week XII – Final Exam
Required readings:
Books, Selections and Excerpts
Berger, John, Ways of Seeing, Penguin Modern Classics (1972).
Brayfield, Celia, Arts Reviews: And How to Write Them, Creative Essentials (2008).
Hofmann, Paul, The Viennese: Splendor, Twilight and Exile, Anchor Books (1988). Selections.
Kramer, Lawerence, Why Classical Music Still Matters, Univ. of California Press (2007). Selections.
Munari, Bruno, Design as Art, Penguin Modern Classics (2009). Excerpt.
Pippal, Martina, A Short History of Art in Vienna, (2001). Perloff, Marjorie, The Vienna Paradox, (2003). Selections.
Rich, Alan, Simon & Schuster Listener’s Guide to Opera, Simon & Schuster (1980).
Schnitzler, Arthur, Traumnovelle (Dream Story), 1926. Penguin Modern Classics (1999). Schaffer, Peter, Amadeus (1981), Penguin Modern Classics (2007).
Schorske, Carl, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture, Vintage, New York (1981). Selections.
Torberg, Friedrich, Tante Jolisch and the Decline of the West in Anecdotes, Ariadne Press (2008)
Articles
Canby, Vincent, “Salieri, Still a Perfect Prism for Mozart’s Genius,” (2000).
Endler, Franz, “The Brothers Schrammel,” and “The Viennese Popular Song,” (in Vienna, A Guide to Its Music and Musicians, 1989, pp.73-81)
Fantal, Hans, “Land of the Waltz,” in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley (1992) pp. 38-42.
Hofmann, Paul, The Viennese: Splendor, Twilight and Exile, Anchor Books (1988). Selections.
James, Clive, Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margins of My Time, Picador (2007). Selections.
Janik, Alan and Toulmin, Stephen, “Culture and Critique, Social Criticism and the Limits of Artistic Expression,” Wittgenstein’s Vienna (1973) Ch.4.
Levy, Alan, “The Law of the Heuriger,” (in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley, 1992, pp.44-47). McNamee, Dardis: “Jelinek’s Rechnitz: The Horror of Silence” (June, 2010).
McNamee, Dardis, “Vienna’s Ol’ Time Songfest” (Vienna Review, 11/09).
New York Times: “Bernard Shaw Snubs England,” Pygmalion premieres at the Hofburgtheater, Vienna, Oct 16, 1913; “The Modest Shaw Again,” (23.11 1913)
Orwell, George, “Why I Write”, from Collected Essays (1961).
Peck, Cynthia, “Flawed Beauty, Fatal Innocence,” a review of Billy Budd at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna Review, March, 2011).
Rich, Alan, “Schubert Finished and Unfinished” in So I’ve Heard, Amadeus Press (2006).
Romano, Carlin, “Thomas Bernhard, Literary Prize Fighter”, Vienna Review, Mar. 2011. Originally published in the The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 2010.
Ross, Alex, “The Golden Age: Strauss, Mahler and the Fin de Siecle,” from The Rest is Noise (2007)
Shaw, G.B., “The Point of View,” Preface to London Music, 1888-9, Vienna House Edition (1973). First published, 1937.
Tynan, Kenneth, “Dimmed Debut” Mother Courage, Berthold Brecht, English-language premiere, (1955); “Dramatic Capital of Europe: Berlin,” (1956)
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Dardis McNamee is Editor in Chief of the English-language monthly, The Vienna Review. In her long career in journalism she has been a correspondent for, among others, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler in New York, and for the Wall Street Journal Europe and Die Zeit in Vienna, as well as a speechwriter to two US ambassadors to Austria. She is a cum laude graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Music and Political Science and a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna in Contemporary History, where she is researching the influence of public relations on 20th century politics and the causes of war. She is a former Research Professor of Media Communications at Webster University Vienna where she was awarded the 2007 Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching for Webster Worldwide and in 2010 was granted Austrian Citizenship of Honor "for outstanding contributions to the Austrian Republic." With her daughter, Maggie Childs, she is the author of the 2011 Frommer's Austria and Frommer's Vienna and the Danube Valley. She has lived in Vienna for 16 years.
This course is an introduction to the history and traditions, artists and institutions of the performing arts in Vienna as a basis for writing reviews and criticism for potential publication in The Vienna Review. Students will learn the principles of professional arts criticism and apply these to current events in theater, music, or visual arts. Students will attend at least four performances and exhibitions and learn to capture in vivid, well-crafted prose, the essence and success of an arts event.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
• research and prepare for reviews and interviews in the time available.
• apply skills of observation to an arts event, expanding their descriptive vocabulary and continuing the development of their own, independent writing voice.
• apply with some skill and security the principles of professional arts criticism, using the tools of creative non-fiction in making a disciplined and convincing argument.
• Identify and analyze expectations of professional writers in the industry, as well as what steps they need to go through to develop their own writing to this level.
Seminar; field work, research and interviews
The course surveys theater, music, the visual arts, and other cultural events in Vienna. Class time includes lectures and discussion of the principles of professional arts criticism and is accompanied by selected readings that provide an introduction to the artists, ideas and events that have shaped Viennese culture as well as an analysis of representative examples of good criticism from various sources.
Students will be required to attend and review four different types of arts events, conducting interviews and researching the context and history of the work. Written work will be due on the first class of the week following the event. Students are graded on a grasp of the cultural context and how successfully each article achieves its journalistic aim. There will also be in-class assignments to test formal skills.
The course will give students a grounding in Viennese culture and break down the process of preparing for and covering arts events into manageable steps and skill-building exercises, including conducting research and interviews, note taking, techniques of description and portraiture, selection of detail, vignette, narrative, and structure. Students learn how to combine observation, interviews and research using the tools of fiction in the service of fact to write reviews of arts events for potential publication in The Vienna Review, Vienna’s English-language newspaper. Students will receive step-by-step practical guidance to develop a clear and informed critical perspective that is well argued and well evidenced and that is also a pleasure to read.
The course includes lecture and discussion of the traditions and principles of professional arts criticism accompanied by readings and analysis of representative examples from various sources.
Assignments include attending current arts events in theater, music, or visual art, and conducting background research and interviews with directors, curators, performers, or relevant scholars, learning what to look for, what questions to ask and how to take good notes. Assignments will also include researching the context and history of the work as well as why it matters and recreating what it was like to be at the event through the use of well observed detail, giving readers insights on the impact and quality of the concept and execution, individual works or performances and the production as a whole.
Structure of Classes
Week I – Culture and Place:
1st Class: Introduction to Arts Criticism
Goals, elements; the experience of art; examples
2nd Class: Aesthetics in Vienna
Readings: Clive James, Cultural Amnesia – Introduction: Vienna.
Paul Hofmann, “The Roots of Ambivalence,” (from The Viennese) Marjorie Perloff, “Seductive Vienna”, (from The Vienna Paradox) George Orwell, “Why I Write”, from Collected Essays (1961)
Week II - City of Stages, Pt. I – “Alles nur Theater”
1st Class: Performing Culture; traditions of theater in Vienna; “Burgtheater Deutsch”
2nd Class: Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, Max Reinhardt, Thomas Bernhardt
Readings: New York Times: “Bernard Shaw Snubs England,” Pygmalion premieres at the
Hofburgtheater, Vienna, Oct 16, 1913; “The Modest Shaw Again,” (23.11.13) Carl Schorske, “Politics and the Psyche: Schnitzler and Hofmannstal”
(from Fin de Siecle Vienna)
Dardis McNamee: “Jelinek’s Rechnitz: The Horror of Silence” (June, 2010)
Carlin Romano, “Thomas Bernhard, Literary Prize Fighter”, Vienna Review, Mar. 2011. Originally published in the The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 2010.
Kenneth Tynan, “Dimmed Debut” Mother Courage, Berthold Brecht, English-language premiere, (1955); “Dramatic Capital of Europe: Berlin,” (1956)
Week III - City of Stages Pt. II: Reviewing Theater
1st Class: Preparation
The play, the production, the background
2nd Class: Writing the Review
What to look for, how to take notes, Choosing an angle, structuring the story
Readings:
Arthur Schnitzler, Traumnovelle (Dream Story), 1926. Clive James, “Arthur Schnitzler” from Cultural Amnesia Peter Schaefer, Amadeus (1981)
Vincent Canby, “Salieri, Still a Perfect Prism for Mozart’s Genius,” (2000)
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
Traumnovelle, by Arthur Schnitzler, Theater an der Josefstadt Sept 29, 30
Amadeus, by Peter Shaffer, Theater an der Josefstadt Sept 11, 13, 17, 22.
Der Färber und sein Zwillingsbruder, Johann Nestroy, Wiener Volkstheater, premiere Oct. 14.
Week IV - Vienna: City of Music - Pt. 1
1st Class: The Opera
What makes Viennese opera Viennese: composers, houses, traditions The role of music in Viennese culture
2nd Class: Covering the opera
Readings: Alan Rich, “Introduction,” Simon & Schuster Listener’s Guide to Opera (1980).
Alex Ross, “The Golden Age: Strauss, Mahler and the Fin de Siecle,” from
The Rest is Noise (2007)
Cynthia Peck, “Flawed Beauty, Fatal Innocence”, a review of Billy Budd at the
Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna Review, March, 2011). Librettos for works to be reviewed.
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
Fidelio, Wiener Staatsoper Oct 20, 22, 27. (Regie: Otto Schenk) Turn of the Screw, B. Britten, Theater an der Wien Sept 24, 27; Salome, R. Strauss, Volksoper Oct. 15, 18; Staatsoper, Oct 22, 25, 30.
Operetta Review: Wiener Blut, J. Strauss, Wiener Volksoper Oct 10, 17.
Die Csárdásfürstin, E. Kalman, Wiener Volksoper Oct. 22
Die lustige Witwe, F. Lehar, Wiener Volksoper, Oct 8, 29.
Week V - City of Music - Pt. 2 The Concert Stage
1st Class: The Context
The Composers
The Culture
Performance traditions
2nd Class: Bringing music alive on the page
Readings: G.B. Shaw, “The Point of View” (Preface to London Music, 1888-9) Hans Fantal, “Land of the Waltz,”
in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley (1992) pp. 38-42
Lawerence Kramer, “Crisis and Memory,” from Why Classical Music Still Matters (2007). Marjorie Perloff, “From the Ringstrasse to the King’s Road: Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage,” from The Vienna Paradox (2003)
Alan Rich, “Schubert Finished and Unfinished” in So I’ve Heard (2006).
Reviews: To be announced.
Week VI - Mid Term (an essay, or a prepared review written in class) Week VII – The Heuriger, the Wienerlied and the Cabaret
1st Class: Of Taverns and Tyrants: Satire as rebellion, Three themes: Nostalgia, Decadence and Death
2nd Class: Wiener Kabarett
The 1920s
Post-War Vienna: Helmut Qualtinger, Gerhard Bronner, Georg Kreisler
‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’: The lawsuit
Today: Michael Niavarani, Oliver Vollmann, Theater L.E.O., etc
Readings: Franz Endler, “The Brothers Schrammel,” and “The Viennese Popular Song,” (in Vienna, A Guide to Its Music and Musicians, 1989, pp.73-81)
Paul Hofmann, “Wine Mystique,” (The Viennese, 1988, pp.14-19) Alan Levy, “The Law of the Heuriger,”
(in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley, 1992, pp.44-47) Dardis McNamee, “Vienna’s Ol’ Time Songfest” (Vienna Review, 11/09) Friedrich Torberg, Tante Jolisch and the Decline of the West in Anecdotes
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
Antonia Lersch’s “Wienerlied Seminar,” Theater L.E.O, (www.theaterleo.at)
“Unter den Teppich” at the Kabarett Simpl (www.simpl.at/spielplan.php)
Lucy McEvil at the 3-raum Anatomietheater, (http://3raum.or.at/) Any performances by those who appeared as part of the “Wien Hean” Wienerlied Festival 2011 (http://www.weanhean.at/) Oliver Vollmann as “Herr Kasperl,” at 3-raum Anatomietheater, (http://3raum.or.at/)
Week VIII – City of Ideas and Images - Pt. I
1st Class: Art and Design in the18th Century
Maria Theresa; Joseph II Fischer von Erlach
2nd Class: The 19th Century: Biedermeier to the Ringstrasse Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Friedrich von Amerling, et al Domesticity, elegance and Gemütlichkeit
The ‘historicism’ of the Ringstrasse
Readings: John Berger , Ways of Seeing (1972)
Carl Schorske, “The Ringstrasse, It’s Critics and the Birth of Urban
Modernism,” in Fin de Siecle Vienna, (1980) Ch. 2. Martina Pippal, A Short History of Art in Vienna, (2001).
Week IX – City of Ideas and Images - Pt. II
1st Class: Art and Design traditions Pt. II
Gustav Klimt, Otto Wagner and the Jugendstil movement
2nd Class: Wien Modern: Vienna Between the Wars
Haus Wittgenstein
Readings: Alan Janik and Stephen Toulmin, “Culture and Critique, Social Criticism and the Limits of Artistic Expression,” Wittgenstein’s Vienna (1973) Ch.4. Carl Schorske, “Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego,”
Fin de Siecle Vienna, (1980) Ch. 5.
Bruno Munari, Design as Art, Penguin Modern Classics (2009).
Reviews: A choice of one of the following
“Makart - An Artist rules the City,” Kunstlerhaus, through Oct.16. Makart – Artist of the Sense, Lower Belvedere, through Oct 9.
“Zwischentöne – die Sammlung Forberg” at the Albertina, from Oct 21.
Amerling Collection at the Liechtenstein Museum. Permanent.
The Vienna Secession (Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka), Belvedere. Permanent
Other exhibitions, to be announced.
Week X – Post War Art & Politics
1st Class: Restoration and Restitution
Labors of love and identity: the Staatsoper, Stephensdom and more. “Farewell Adele” and other cultural crises
2nd Class: Hrdlicka, Hundertwasser and Nitsch; Blickfang at the MAK
Readings: To be selected
Reviews: “Hundertwasser - The Art Of The Green Path,” through Nov. 6. (www.kunsthauswien.com)
“Josef Hoffmann: Inspirations,” through Dec. 31. (www.mak.at) Additional exhibitions, to be announced.
Week XI – Review
Week XII – Final Exam
Books, Selections and Excerpts
Berger, John, Ways of Seeing, Penguin Modern Classics (1972).
Brayfield, Celia, Arts Reviews: And How to Write Them, Creative Essentials (2008).
Hofmann, Paul, The Viennese: Splendor, Twilight and Exile, Anchor Books (1988). Selections.
Kramer, Lawerence, Why Classical Music Still Matters, Univ. of California Press (2007). Selections.
Munari, Bruno, Design as Art, Penguin Modern Classics (2009). Excerpt.
Pippal, Martina, A Short History of Art in Vienna, (2001). Perloff, Marjorie, The Vienna Paradox, (2003). Selections.
Rich, Alan, Simon & Schuster Listener’s Guide to Opera, Simon & Schuster (1980).
Schnitzler, Arthur, Traumnovelle (Dream Story), 1926. Penguin Modern Classics (1999). Schaffer, Peter, Amadeus (1981), Penguin Modern Classics (2007).
Schorske, Carl, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture, Vintage, New York (1981). Selections.
Torberg, Friedrich, Tante Jolisch and the Decline of the West in Anecdotes, Ariadne Press (2008)
Articles
Canby, Vincent, “Salieri, Still a Perfect Prism for Mozart’s Genius,” (2000).
Endler, Franz, “The Brothers Schrammel,” and “The Viennese Popular Song,” (in Vienna, A Guide to Its Music and Musicians, 1989, pp.73-81)
Fantal, Hans, “Land of the Waltz,” in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley (1992) pp. 38-42.
Hofmann, Paul, The Viennese: Splendor, Twilight and Exile, Anchor Books (1988). Selections.
James, Clive, Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margins of My Time, Picador (2007). Selections.
Janik, Alan and Toulmin, Stephen, “Culture and Critique, Social Criticism and the Limits of Artistic Expression,” Wittgenstein’s Vienna (1973) Ch.4.
Levy, Alan, “The Law of the Heuriger,” (in Fodors Vienna and the Danube Valley, 1992, pp.44-47). McNamee, Dardis: “Jelinek’s Rechnitz: The Horror of Silence” (June, 2010).
McNamee, Dardis, “Vienna’s Ol’ Time Songfest” (Vienna Review, 11/09).
New York Times: “Bernard Shaw Snubs England,” Pygmalion premieres at the Hofburgtheater, Vienna, Oct 16, 1913; “The Modest Shaw Again,” (23.11 1913)
Orwell, George, “Why I Write”, from Collected Essays (1961).
Peck, Cynthia, “Flawed Beauty, Fatal Innocence,” a review of Billy Budd at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna Review, March, 2011).
Rich, Alan, “Schubert Finished and Unfinished” in So I’ve Heard, Amadeus Press (2006).
Romano, Carlin, “Thomas Bernhard, Literary Prize Fighter”, Vienna Review, Mar. 2011. Originally published in the The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 2010.
Ross, Alex, “The Golden Age: Strauss, Mahler and the Fin de Siecle,” from The Rest is Noise (2007)
Shaw, G.B., “The Point of View,” Preface to London Music, 1888-9, Vienna House Edition (1973). First published, 1937.
Tynan, Kenneth, “Dimmed Debut” Mother Courage, Berthold Brecht, English-language premiere, (1955); “Dramatic Capital of Europe: Berlin,” (1956)
Dardis McNamee is Editor in Chief of the English-language monthly, The Vienna Review. In her long career in journalism she has been a correspondent for, among others, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler in New York, and for the Wall Street Journal Europe and Die Zeit in Vienna, as well as a speechwriter to two US ambassadors to Austria. She is a cum laude graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Music and Political Science and a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna in Contemporary History, where she is researching the influence of public relations on 20th century politics and the causes of war. She is a former Research Professor of Media Communications at Webster University Vienna where she was awarded the 2007 Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching for Webster Worldwide and in 2010 was granted Austrian Citizenship of Honor "for outstanding contributions to the Austrian Republic." With her daughter, Maggie Childs, she is the author of the 2011 Frommer's Austria and Frommer's Vienna and the Danube Valley. She has lived in Vienna for 16 years.