Opera

the Wolf Trap Theater, on August 5th, I saw the opera La Boheme. La Boheme is a love story between a poet named Rodolfo and seamstress named Mimi. The opera explores ideas of true love and the bitter sweetness of reminiscing past lovers. This opera was based on the novel, Scenes de la vie de Boheme by Henri Murger. The music was written by Giacomo Puccini, an Italian composer who lived during the Post-Romanic Period, and is well known for his opera compositions. The libretto was written by…

1. Le nozze di Figaro K 492 a. The overture captures the spirit of the opera with themes specific to the overture that do not appear anywhere else in the opera. b. The overture was written just hours before the opera’s first performance and Mozart’s main concern was to catch the audience’s attention immediately and to show the opera’s pace. c. Overture begins with a piano whispering and buzzing that develops into a short-breathed theme. d. The tutti then comes in with the trumpets and drums,…

The protagonist in The Phantom of the Opera is Christine Daae. Christine Daae is originally from Sweden, her mother died when she was six and her father was a renounced violinist. Christine originally started at the Paris Opera House as a ballerina but was needed to fill in for Carlotta when she was ill and then became an opera singer. Christine’s conflict in the story is choosing between her childhood best friend Raoul or the Opera Ghost Erik when the ghost kidnaps her. Christine is the…

EARLY VERDI In his early works, Verdi was known for using canons and fuges and also to have written vocal music, band music and chamber works. In his early opera he uses standard elements of Italian opera content of the period. Amongst the essential elements are the aria, the duet, the ensemble, and the finale sequence of an act. The aria format, involved three sections, a slow introduction, marked typically cantabile or adagio, known as the cavatina, a tempo di mezzo that might involve chorus…

Italian opera. This style of opera is known to be closely related because the focus is exclusively on the solo voice and on a lyrical, beautiful voice line. The lines orchestrated in the Italian opera are harmonic and more simplistic than of what a German opera orchestrates. As stated, "For Italians, music and voice are almost one and the same." The Italian opera composer aims not at musical and dramatic subtlety but, rather, at banner headlines of emotion as stated. In this particular opera…

Kirkendale with regard to the “birth” of opera, or how it truly originated. Kirkendale has written an article “The Myth of the “Birth of Opera” in the Florentine Camerata Debuked by Emilio de’ Cavalieri: A Commemorative Lecture” in effort to determine exactly where opera began and who created it. We will also compare Kirkendale’s article to Grout, Palisca, and Burkholder’s textbook “A History of Western Music” with their chapter that discusses the invention of opera. Indeed, this topic has…

References to Popular Works in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom of the Opera is a novel written by Gaston Leroux and published as a serial in Le Gaulois, a Parisian newspaper, between September of 1909 and January of 1910 (Freeman, “Le Gaulois”). Originally published in French, the novel first reached English-speaking audiences when it was translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos in 1911. Due to time constraints, de Mattos’s translation has many errors, ranging…

Synopsis The drama theater The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of an opera singer Christine who has been performing at the gala was held in Paris. Raoul is a sign of old and had been friends with Christine since childhood had heard Christine sing and have fallen in love with him. At the time it also became a rumor that there are ghosts who have stayed in Opera. After the gala dinner held to have committed Faust Opera Paris by presenting the prima donna Carlotta. During the show Carlotta…

The Lion King. Mary Poppins. West Side Story. Annie. The Phantom of the Opera. Matilda. Wicked. HAMILTON. These are all Broadway shows that I have had the privilege of seeing; moreover, they have been a crucial part of my love and respect for theater. When I sit in a theater like the Richard Rogers or Shubert, I am overwhelmed with joy like a kid in a candy store by the plush red velvet seats, the buzz of the crowd as the ushers attempt to control their hurried fever, the ornate designs on the…

Placido Domingo is generally known as “the King of Opera”, as he is one of the most famous singers and composers of all time. Born on January 21, 1941, in Madrid, Spain, Domingo grew up in a very music oriented family. Both of his parents were singers of Spanish operas, and toured all around Spain with a troupe. When he was around the age of eight years old, he received his first piano lessons. He moved with his parents down to Mexico so they could start up their own zarzuela group, which helped…