Reflection of Prague State Opera’s Performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto

In any musical drama, be it opera, oratorio, or even musical theatre, it is possible for a composer to convey the personality of their characters through compositional and musical techniques. Doing so heightens the audience’s understanding of the characters, their motivations, and the relationships between them. Monteverdi, as a pioneer of opera, was one of the first to capitalize on this opportunity to heighten the audience’s understanding of the characters. This is highly apparent in his last opera, L’Incoronazione di Poppea. The music for two of the characters, Poppea and Nerone, is especially well composed to demonstrate personality, and this is no more apparent than in the dialogue which introduces the audience to them, Signor, deh

She was intelligent and compassionate and insightful. This insight is clear to us from the beginning, as the curtains open on a bedroom, in which Figaro is measuring and Susanna is preparing her headdress for the ceremony later that day. Their duet begins and Figaro is measuring dimensions of furniture to a “bourree pattern”6 with strong beats, while Susanna sings a “gavotte”7 which is quick and lively, about her beautiful headdress. She calls to Figaro to admire it, and breaks his pattern. “The third-beat accent of her melody unsettles Figaro’s deliberate downbeat… interfere[ing] with the valet’s concentration… throwing his vocal tallying out of sync.”8 She fills in his space with a delicate melody that gets him back on tempo and turns his attention towards her, where he finally acknowledges her headdress and remarks about the practicality of the room, leading into the second duet. Here we draw the parallel between Figaro’s masculine rhythm and his rationality. His steady downbeats match the logic he uses to take the Count’s gift of the room as an advantage, because it is close to both the Count and Countess’s quarters. Similar to the way Susanna was able to “sing” Figaro back into place, she uses her global perspective of the situation to realize the Count wants her close to his room for easier access. Susanna leads Figaro to this realization, and brings him to the reality of the situation. Using her insight, Susanna demonstrates

While Jaquino is away, Marzelline sings a heartfelt aria. Marzelline’s aria is on confessing her feelings for Fidelio. She sings her true thoughts on the passions she hopes would occur in her marital bliss with Fidelio. She sings of her dreams of being a loyal wife, fulfilling her domestic chores and then enjoying a pleasure filled night with her husband, Fidelio. The aria is light and hopeful with a cheerful ending. Then, Leonore, disguised as Fidelio, enters the garden carrying chains and a box.

In the scene, Orsino asks Feste to sing a song that “dallies with the innocence of love” (1212, l. 46) and as Feste sings, Orsino and Viola slowly come together and eventually their lips touch as Feste’s song is ending. During this scene, Nunn upholds the comedic attributes of the play itself by adding in the facial expressions of Feste as he sings his song and realizes what is happening; however, Nunn also adds in the motion of Orsino and Cesario slowly coming together and kissing. The addition of Orsino and Cesario’s stage directions takes away from the overall comedic aspect of the play, and shifts into an aspect of the play that is focused on love and romance. Nunn also provides an intimate setting to the scene by placing the characters in a dimly lit shed. In the original text, Curio makes the comment that Feste is “about the house” (1211), which suggests that Feste is situated in Orsino’s home, however in the film it is shown that he is located in a shed near a cliff overlooking the ocean. This change in the setting from being in a house, to being cliff-side overlooking the ocean creates a romantic setting for the audience. Furthermore, the dim shed setting provides a sense of privacy and intimacy for the audience and essentially sets the mood for the events that take place during Feste’s song. To the audience their kiss is a perfect addition because it soothes the romantic tension

The performance of W.A. Mozart’s work Lucio Silla was held in Brooklyn College Opera Theatre on Friday, May 11 at 7:30pm. This piece of music was presented in a concert vision with the Conservatory Orchestra under the lead of George Rothman as the conductor, and with the Conservatory Singers under the lead of Malcolm J. Merriweather as the director. This performance is conducted by Matthew Patrick Morris, a famous singer and actor who teaches at the Brooklyn College for voice. The concert is performed by many experienced singers and musicians, and the audiences had showed their greatest respect by keeping quiet and paying attention to the performance throughout the entire concert. There was one piece of music that attracted me the most, which is the overture at the beginning of the performance.

When students study to sing Italian bel canto opera, it’s better to use the work which performed by people who is original singer to imitate and practice. However, there are still a series of problems will happen for non-Italian students when they are study singing the opera, for example Semiramide. Bel raggio lusinghier. Even according to the video soundtrack to imitate, the overall effect artistic and performances is not satisfactory. The problems are pronunciation hesitation, slurred speech, unknown the meaning of the text. All of these problems will reduce the bel canto opera artistry.

Romeo and Juliet, is one of the famous plays written by William Shakespeare who is known for his famous plays and poems. Romeo and Juliet are repeated by two different directors which are not alike, in both directing and speaking. The play is a very tragic at the end when Romeo and Juliet die due with their parent’s strife and hatred; however their death ends the anger and rage between the two families. The main theme of the play is romantic but ends with a tragic scene because the two star crossed lovers take their life to a whole misadventured piteous overthrows their parent’s strife. Act 3 is when the feud happens between tybalt and Mercutio, it starts off on a hot day in a public place, Mercutio and Benvolio walking and unexpectedly

The most pivotal scene in the play (act 4 scene 1) is between the marriage of Leonato's daughter Hero to Claudio. In this scene the blush of Hero after being said to have slept with another man is set too signify “guiltiness not of modesty” to Claudio. However the Friar of the town believes that Hero's blush is that of her “innocence and virtue.”

The opening scenes of the film closely reflect those of the play in terms of plot, but not necessarily in terms of lines or even order. The opening scene of the play shows Lucentio, Cameron in the movie, being welcomed to Padua by Tranio, Michael in the movie (1.1). Lucentio informs the audience that he is in Padua to “institute/ A course of learning and ingenious studies” (1.1.8-9) and that he “with satiety seeks to quench his thirst” (1.1.24). While this opening dialogue seems to be

The voice is considered as the most important element in the Italian Opera. On top of the polyphonic accompaniment for the orchestra, melody

* Act 4 Scene 1 Lines 1-104 (Shaming of Hero), Lines 105-247 (Plan by Friar Francis) and rest of the scene (Beatrice and Benedick)

1.In Act Two Scene One, the group of people who have decided to assassinate Caesar meet up with Brutus to convince him to join their group, the conspiracy, one more time. During this scene, I would play Wine-Dark Sea (Symphony for Band): I. Hubris, by the 2017 North Texas Wind Symphony (John Mackey). This movement of the song is a great portrayal of the scene because Cassius, the leader of the conspiracy, along with the rest of the conspirators are attempting to persuade Brutus, the protagonist, to join them in the plot to kill Brutus’ best friend, Julius Caesar. The aspects of the music differ greatly, magnificently portraying the energy of the scene. The music has changes in dynamics, along with solos and solis, or groups of performers playing as an ensemble, that act as the voices of the conspirators that all jump in, agreeing with Cassius, to further persuade Brutus. This piece would begin to play during the stage direction that states, “Enter the conspirators: CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS, and TREBONIUS” (2.1.87sd). During the lines following this stage direction there are larger, one-person-said lines followed by smaller lines that are vaguely announced by the other conspirators. Similarly, in the movement, there are a few melodious sections played mainly by one instrument group at a louder dynamic, followed by a counter melody played by the entire band.

Cited:1. Balthazar, Scott Leslie. Evolving conventions in Italian serious opera: scene structure in the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. University of Pennsylvania, 1985.

Based on my concert experience, the first piece that I am going to discuss are the compositions that they played in the first part before intermission. In this part, the opera consisted

Musically this section functions as the “contrasting key group” of a sonata-allegro structure because the key is C major. Dramatically, in this section Sarastro's and the people of his palace are the main focus, and the plot twist that Sarastro may not be evil is introduced. Act II begins with the early trials of