{"id":391,"date":"2022-03-30T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T19:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=profile&p=391"},"modified":"2026-07-13T14:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:03:50","slug":"deborah-burton","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/about\/contact-directions\/directory\/deborah-burton\/","title":{"rendered":"Deborah Burton"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Deborah Burton<\/strong> is currently Associate Professor of Music at Boston University. Her research concerns opera analysis, counterpoint, and the history of music theory, emphasizing Italian sources. She has taught at Harvard University; University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Florida International University, Fordham, University of Michigan and Adrian College. In Spring 2016, she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, and gave a two-day seminar on opera analysis sponsored by the Societ\u00e0 Italiana di Musicologia (SIdM) and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, entitled,\u201cSi pu\u00f2, si deve analizzare l\u2019opera?\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Burton was president of the New England Conference for Music Theory from 2006-2008. Her monograph, entitled Recondite Harmony: Essays on Puccini\u2019s Operas, was published by Pendragon Press in Autumn 2012. Dr. Burton collaborated with Gregory Harwood to write a prize-winning annotated translation of Francesco Galeazzi\u2019s 1796 Elementi Teorico-Practici, volume II, entitled The Theoretical-Practical Elements of Music, Parts III and IV as volume 5 of the Studies in the History of Music Theory and Literature of the University of Illinois Press (2012). She wrote an introduction to Brepol\u2019s facsimile edition of Giorgio Antoniotto. L\u2019arte armonica (1760), and presented on that author\u2019s work at the national meeting of the Society of Music Theory in Fall 2017.<\/p>\n

In July 2026, the world premiere of Dr. Burton\u2019s finale for Puccini\u2019s opera Turandot was held at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Italy. It was compiled from autograph sketches by the composer, some of which had never before been accessed. Dr. Burton has also written a monograph about the many finales composed for Turandot, which was published by Routledge in Fall 2026. In October 2013, Dr. Burton organized a series of events celebrating the 200th anniversary of Wagner\u2019s birth, collectively entitled Wagner in Context. These included lectures by the composer\u2019s great-grandson, Gottfried Wagner, Donald Palumbo and William Berger of the Met Opera, the filmmaker\/documentarian Hilan Warshaw, and an interdisciplinary round-table with BU faculty members. The Facebook page for the festival is www.facebook.com\/wagnerincontext. In December 2010, in honor of the centenary of Puccini\u2019s La Fanciulla del West, she created a website www.fanciulla100.org, moderated a special panel discussion on the opera at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, and organized a symposium and exhibition in conjunction with Boston University\u2019s Howard Gotlieb Archival Center, videos of which can be seen at: http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse. In Spring 2008, she organized and presented at the interdisciplinary conference Opera and Society at Boston University. She has been a guest lecturer at the Teatro del Giglio (Lucca, Italy), the University of Rome, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Program, the Hartt School of Music, and The New York City Opera. Dr. Burton presented a paper on operatic Formenlehre at the national meeting of the Society for Music Theory in November 2015. She gave two research presentations at the 2008 AMS-SMT national meeting in Nashville, and presented at the 2006 Fourth International Schenker Symposium, and the 2005 meeting of the New England Conference of Music Theorists. Dr. Burton was an originator of and participant in the interdisciplinary conference \u201cTosca 2000\u201d in Rome, honoring the centennial of Puccini\u2019s opera and the bicentennial of the events that inspired it. Co-editor of Tosca\u2019s Prism: Three Moments of Western Cultural History (Northeastern University Press, 2004), which won an AMS subvention prize, she has published articles and reviews in journals including Music Theory Spectrum, Music Theory and Analysis, Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale, Studi Musicali, Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana, the Opera Journal, and Opera Quarterly.<\/p>\n

Selected Publications<\/p>\n

\u2022 The finales of \u201cTurandot\u201d: Puccini\u2019s last act. monograph (New York: Routledge, 2026).<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cChi La vera Turandot? L\u2019ultima opera di Giacomo Puccini: il personaggio e i finali\u201d in Verso Turandot, ed. Gabriella Biagi Ravenni (Lucca: Publied, 2026).<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cTurandot transformed.\u201d La Scena Musicale, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cOpera Analysis\u201d In Handbuch Musikanalyse. Method und Pluralit\u00e4t. Edited by Ariane Jessulat, Oliver Schwab-Felisch, Jan Philipp Sprick and Christian Thorau. (B\u00e4renreiter-Verlag and Metzler-Verlag: 2025).<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cIl trattato di contrappunto di Michele Puccini\u201d Ed. and trans. Federico Favali. In Cordo pratico di contrappunto compilato da Michele Puccini per uso de\u2019 suoi allievi. pp. 16-30. Lucca: Associazione lucchesi nel mondo, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cPuccini\u2019s last act: Finishing Turandot,\u201d The Opera Journal, Autumn\/Winter 2022.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cLe scarpe di Figaro: substitution, revolution, compassion.\u201d In Tra ragione e pazzia: saggi di esegesi, storiografia e drammaturgia musicale in onore di Fabrizio Della Seta, eds. Federica Rovelli, Claudio Vellutini, Cecilia Panti, Edizione ETS, 2021.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cStormy Weather: Issues of Form, Deformation and Continuity in Opera Analysis.\u201d In Singing in Signs. Edited by Matthew Shaftel and Gregory Decker, (Oxford University Press, 2020). Winner of the Society for Music Theory\u2019s Special Citation of Merit 2020.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Introduction to Giorgio Antoniotto. L\u2019arte armonica (1760), a facsimile edition in the Series \u2018Musical Treatises\u2019 (Turnhout: Brepols, April 2017).<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cVerdi\u2019s Six-Fours and la parola scenica.\u201d Co-authored with Giorgio Sanguinetti. Music Theory and Analysis: International Journal of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory. IV\/1 (April 2017).<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cMen Who Love Too Much: Operatic Heroes and the Metric and Tonal Disturbances that Follow them.\u201d In Essays from the Fourth International Schenker Symposium \u2013 Volume 2. Edited by L. Poundie Burstein, Lynne Rogers, Karen M. Bottge. Studien und Materialien zur Musikwissenschaft. New York: Olms, 2013.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Recondite Harmony: Essays on Puccini\u2019s Operas. monograph: an analytically based exploration of Puccini\u2019s compositional techniques with short essays on each opera. New York: Pendragon Press, 2012.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Theoretical-Practical Elements of Music, Parts III and IV, co-authored with Gregory Harwood., Studies in the History of Music Theory and Literature, vol. 5. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tosca\u2019s Prism: Three Moments of Western Cultural History, co-authored with Susan Vandiver Nicassio and Agostino Ziino, eds.. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cThe Puccini Code.\u201d Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale XIX (2013\/2): 7-32.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAriadne\u2019s Threads: Puccini and Cinema.\u201d Studi Musicali (2012\/1): 219-246.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cGuida e Conseguente: Padre Martini and Galeazzi on Fugue.\u201d Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale XVII\/1-2 (2011): 121-147.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cPadre Martini\u2019s Preface to his Esemplare, Part II: an original, annotated translation\u201d Theoria, 11 (2004): 35-108.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cOrfeo, Osmin and Otello: Towards a Theory of Opera Analysis.\u201d Studi Musicali, (2004\/2): 359-385.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cA Journey of Discovery: Puccini\u2019s \u2018motivo di prima intenzione\u2019 and its applications in Manon Lescaut, La Fanciulla del West and Suor Angelica.\u201d Studi Musicali, (2001\/2): 473-499.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cPossibili fonti storiche per la Tosca.\u201d Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana, 4\/2 (April\/June 2000): 199-220.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cTristano, Tosca e Torchi.\u201d In Studi Musicali Toscani: Giacomo Puccini: L\u2019uomo, il musicista, il panorama europeo, edited by Gabriella Biagi Ravenni and Carolyn Gianturco, 127-145. Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1997.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cThe Creation of Tosca: towards a clearer view.\u201d Opera Quarterly 12\/3 (Spring, 1996): 27-34.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cMichele Puccini\u2019s Counterpoint Treatise.\u201d Quaderni pucciniani (1996): 173-181. Musical Edition<\/p>\n

\u2022 A New Finale for Puccini’s Turandot: realized by Deborah Burton, Carus Verlag, 2026. This completion of Puccini’s unfinished final opera relies on unpublished sketches from a private collection and from the Puccini archive in Torre del Lago, Italy, as well as those that belong to the Ricordi archive. Creating music for the sections without sketches was accomplished through model composition, based on Puccini’s earlier operas, subsequently updated stylistically. The world premiere of the finale was held on 18 July 2026 at the Teatro della Pergola, Florence, Italy.<\/p>\n

Awards<\/p>\n

\u00b7 American Academy in Rome, Visiting Scholar, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2017<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Junior Fellowship, Humanities Foundation, Boston University, one-term sabbatical for Fall 2009 for work on the manuscript Recondite Harmony: the Music of Puccini<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Placard honoring doctoral work on Puccini\u2019s Tosca installed at the Casa Puccini, Vacallo, Switzerland. 2007-present<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Harvard University, Visiting Scholar research appointment, 2003-2004<\/p>\n

Recent papers and presentations<\/p>\n

\u2022 May 2026 Organizer and presenter, symposium Puccini\u2019s \u201cTurandot\u201d in Today\u2019s World, Casa Italiana, New York University. International roster of guest speakers and performers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 April 2026 Organizer and presenter, symposium Turandot: Past, Present and Future, College of Fine Arts, Boston University, with opera scholars and opera professionals as guests.<\/p>\n

\u2022 March 2026 Presenter, Il Teatro del Giglio Giacomo Puccini, Lucca, Italy and live-streamed in Italy. Topic: \u201cI finali di Turandot: l\u2019ultimo enigma.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Oct. 2024 Presenter, Mannes College of Music, Techniques of Music, Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series. Topic: \u201cPuccini\u2019s Last Act: finishing Turandot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sept. 2024 Presenter, Puccini Summit 2024, Sala delle Arti, Ravenna, Italy.<\/p>\n

\u2022 July 2024 Presenter, The Boston Wagner Institute. Topic: \u201cWagner – hero, demon, or human?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 March 2024 Presenter, study day in honor of William Rothstein, the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, NY. Topic: \u201cTransformations\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 January 2024 Presenter, Giacomo Puccini Symposium 2024, Stuttgart, sponsored by the Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini, the Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Giacomo Puccini and Carus-Verlag. Topic: \u201cThe last act: Puccini, Turandot and the finale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nov. 2023 Presenter, Joint National Meeting of the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory, Denver, CO. Topic: \u201cModernism, Mosaics, Major-third cycles, and #MeToo: A new finale for Puccini\u2019s Turandot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 April 2023 Guest lecturer, Boston Wagner Society, Boston Public Library. Topic: \u201cPuccini\u2019s Wagnerismo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Feb. 2022 Presenter, New England Chapter of the American Musicological Society, virtual conference through Brandeis University. Topic: \u201cPuccini\u2019s Last Act: Finishing Turandot\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nov. 2021 Session chair, 44th National Meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Jacksonville, FL, session: \u201cOpera\/Operetta.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sept. 2021 Guest interview on podcast Words First. Topic: Puccini and his librettists. https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/1180661\/9420960<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":14125,"template":"","bu_progs_degree-option":[],"dicipline":[125],"school":[133],"unit":[],"program":[157],"position":[123],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14125"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131735,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/391\/revisions\/131735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bu_progs_degree-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_progs_degree-option?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"dicipline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dicipline?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"unit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"position","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/position?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}