Spring 2027

Storytelling on Stage: Introduction to Musical Theater and Opera

Introduces musical theater and opera in Europe and America, focusing on storytelling through the interaction of music and drama, genre histories, and cultural relationships.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Charles Dill

Exams were often manageable if students attended lectures, and an optional extra-credit paper allowed for up to a 10% grade increase.

What you’ll be able to do

  • observe the interdependent relationship between musical composers, performers, and audiences that has shaped the histories of musical theater and opera

  • promote critical thinking skills by linking course content with personal experiences and observations

  • strengthen communication skills through written assignments and discussion

  • identify representative passages from works studied

  • understand the historical and social conditions under which opera and musical theater was produced in different times and places

  • acquire vocabulary for identifying and describing features of selected works

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
MUSIC 105

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CHARLES DILL is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARGARET BUTLER is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Charles Dill

Students described the course as intriguing even for those with little initial interest, noting that the instructor's passion made opera engaging.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2020: 3.77 GPA, 87.8% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Fall 2021: 3.65 GPA, 84.8% A/AB (n=46 letter grades); Fall 2022: 3.63 GPA, 77.8% A/AB (n=45 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Charles Dill

Exams were often manageable if students attended lectures, and an optional extra-credit paper allowed for up to a 10% grade increase.

Past student reviews · Margaret Butler

One student found Professor Butler to be knowledgeable and caring, describing the class discussions as very relaxed.

Topics

  • Histories and formation of musical theater and opera, including relationships to culture and society.
  • Principal creators, performers, and distinctive features of representative works.
  • Relationships to film and other media, and treatments of race, class, and gender in selected examples.

Skills

  • Identify representative musical passages and use specialized vocabulary to describe features of opera and musical theater works.
  • Analyze how historical and social contexts shape the production and reception of opera and musical theater.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2022— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2022

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2022 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1213 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "ceca88db47cdebbd03b98ca9f78eca9d59a857e1464bd642a444ac95302bf829",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}