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Don Giovanni Opera in Modern Times
Music has the capability to bring forth many emotions and feelings in a person. Depending on the tone and the melody of the music, emotions such as anger, joy, and grief may arise. For example, rap music, in general, brings forth emotions such as anger, frustration, and rage to a person's mind. Melodies such as Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On and Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing often arouse emotions of love, sadness, and hope; "lovey-dovey" feelings which remind a person of a past or current love. In Mozart's Opera Don Giovanni, many emotions and feelings, such as hatred, distress, and sorrow are portrayed and felt through the characters.
Opera is a unique genre of spoken word and song accompanied by music. The music takes one through ascending and descending ranges of emotions. Mozart's Don Giovanni is a perfect example of how this genre emits a wide variety of feelings and attitudes. This "dark comedy seems to convey Mozart's feeling that events have both comical and serious dimensions…" (Kerman, 205). The opera, as a whole, is neither exclusively comedic nor entirely tragic.
The character I have chosen to focus on specifically is Donna Elvira. Her character is one that portrays many different roles and expresses many different feelings and emotions. Elvira's main purpose as a character is the role of the avenger, seeking revenge upon Don Giovanni for his false promises and promiscuous manner. However, as much as she wants to hate Don Giovanni, ruin his name, and make sure that everyone knows that he is a liar and a "player", one also senses reluctance and fear in not just her voice, but also through the music which accompanies her. Her tone is often shaken and a...
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...ng been reminded of past heartache and pain through the music, one now is able to relate with Elvira's situation and sympathize with her on a new and deeper level than before.
By no means am I a musical genius, I can not even carry a tune if one paid me to; therefore, distinguishing the difference between the tone, rhythm, and pitch of music is personal difficulty for me. However, relating to a character and feeling emotionally what he/she does is not a task that takes great skill. It is in our nature, as humans, to be emotionally moved by music. The sound, melody, rhythm, tone, even words in a song provoke emotions based on past experiences and current problems. Many people, most for that matter, use music as an outlet for emotion. Some compose, like Mozart, some write lyrics, others simply listen to the sounds and let their emotions as a result of the music.
It holds such power over captives and captors alike that they cannot help but feel enamoured to the life it brings. Cesar especially feels the beauty of music “Oh, how he loved to hear the words in his mouth… It didn't matter that he didn't understand the language, he knew what it meant. The words and music fused together and became a part of him” and through music, he discovers his latent talent for singing (224). Based only on Roxanne’s previous arias, Cesar’s potential is outstandingly bright when he sings for the first time without any training whatsoever. Not only do the others learn to appreciate his gift, but Roxanne herself recognizes how promising he is or she would not have bothered to waste her time tutoring him. Beforehand, Cesar is nothing remarkable, just another one of the terrorists who detains them, but the opera transforms him into a separate person. Like the mansion enveloped in the garua, Cesar is heavily shrouded by serious self-esteem issues and fear, but after his breakthrough, his worries suddenly disappear and his life becomes a reservoir of joy. If “life, true life, was something stored in music”, then Cesar has lived a deprived life; his passion for music was just unfolding, but fate robs the world of who “was meant to be the greatest singer of his time” (5,
For example, we can take the most common form of emotional creation, a love poem, “This is the way of love and music: it plays like a god and / then is done” (Johnson 24-25). This verse by Johnson is a direct reflection of her emotions while and through the poem, we can feel that love melancholy that she feels at the thought of her lost lover. This type of analysis can be made for any musical composition and you will find, even in the blandest piece, an emotion linked to it; and like the compositor for his composition, a listener will be bound to pieces that reflect his emotional state. To link with Frith, we can go deeper and say that the listener will also be bound to his social state. For example : even though social discrepancies are less and less present, it is obvious that a young African-American boy from Brooklyn and a young Caucasian girl from Seattle don’t have the same idea of what a love song is. The former might be thinking of J Cole’s Work Out, while the latter is more into Taylor Swift You Belong with
Heavy keyboard notes, light wind instruments, raspy vocals — factors in the creation of a certain song's atmosphere. My ears were a fresh three or four years old at first listen to what would become my senior year anthem. The song begins, "The winner takes all..." This tune in particular refers to success on the horizon, conjuring up motivational sentiments. Music, in whatever form it takes, seems to affect the listener's emotions.
Opera originated in Italy in the early 1500’s. It gained popularity in the Baroque period when people began experimenting new and different sounds with their voices. Opera is very dramatic work and you must have a really great voice to be considered as an Opera singer. Operas are usually performed in Opera houses and are accompanied by different instruments/ orchestra. It started off in Italy and soon became used all over the world. In the 1800s, Italian Opera soon began to take over all of Europe. The most known Opera singer is Mozart, who is most known for the comic operas. The soprano voice is the voice typically used as the choice for the female of the opera since the 18th century. Earlier, it was common for parts to be sung by any female soprano voice.The tenor voice, from the Classical era, has been assigned the role of male.
If music reveals emotions, it is not a normal emotion like any other (Stecker 273). The expression in music can be considered a traditionalized phenomenon (Stecker 273). There are common questions about how many or what type of emotions music can create (Stecker 273). People question the possibility for music to be an element in a certain pattern (Stecker 273). Which can be a very emotional pattern (Stecker 273). This can go from laughing hysterically, to being uneasily scared, to surprise, to unusual panic, to strange sorrow, to acceptance, and finally serenity (Stecker 273).
Some of Patchett’s characters are driven completely by music, as it is the love of their lives. Mr. Hosokawa, Kato, and Carmen all connect with music, specifically opera, on a higher level. In these chapters, each of these characters becomes happy. Even in the worst of situations, the power of music overcomes
Music is far more than the sum of its parts. It can be thought of in a highly mathematical sense, which leaves one in awe of the seemingly endless combinations of rhythm, tone and intervals that a good musician can produce. Admiring music in this way is a lot like admiring an intricate snowflake, or shapes in the clouds; it's beautiful, but at the same time very scientific, based on patterns. All of the aforementioned qualities of music have one thing in common: they can be defined with numeric, specific values. However, the greatest aspect of music lies elsewhere, and cannot be specifically defined with words. It is the reaction that each individual has when they are confronted with their favorite (or least favorite) kind of music.
Countless dozens of Ph.D. theses must be written about Mozart's The Magic Flute, and yet it is so lively with elements of fantasy and free-flying imagination that it is often the first opera to which children are taken. It has a plot of such complexity that it takes several viewings for all but the most studious opera buffs to sort out the characters and follow the ins and outs of the multilevel story. At the same time, it has so much easily accessible charm and so many glorious Mozart tunes that even the novice will be captivated. There is a large cast of characters including the priest Sarastro (a very serious, proselytizing basso), the Queen of the Night (a mean, angry, scheming coloratura), and her daughter, the beautiful and courageous Pamina. There is the handsome hero, Tamino, on the quintessential road trip, and his cohort in misadventure, the bird seller, Papageno.
People relate to music. We sing it. We cry to it. We laugh to it. The reason: we can see ourselves in music. We can let go of our feelings and just relate to the words or the instruments. One way the songwriter connects the listener to the music is through plot: the problem or reaction to a problem a character/singer is expressing. Whether it is a fight with a lover, a fight with a friend, finding a lover/friend, or any other, the plot is helps the listener relate to the song.
Gioachino Rossini, like many great composers, was born in the right place at the right time. The musical firmament was still mourning the loss of Wolfgang Mozart in 1792 when Rossini was born. His parents were both gifted musicians, and young Gioachino was in a music conservatory by the age of 14. Rossini composed ten operas within the following seven years and had established himself as a gifted composer in the opera buffa style. This genre of comic opera was strikingly different from the rigorous opera seria, but it still managed to acquire some noticeable traits. Primarily, the arias in opera buffe shirk the da capo style of the seria mold. The subject matter deals frequently with common people in every day situations, instead of the mythological gods of seria. Arias often incorporate patter singing, which contrasts strongly with melismatic seria vocal melodies. The buffa style originated in Naples in the early 18th century and spread north through Rome and Bologna. Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro are considered two paradigmatic examples of this style. Rossini was influenced heavily by Mozart’s work, to the extent that he referred to the Viennese composer as “The admiration of my youth, the desperation of my mature years, the consolation of my old age”.
Emotions are easily affected by outside forces. Music can provoke emotions of sadness, grief, joy, and even ecstasy. There are several different aspects of music that change how a song is interpreted. From these interpretations come emotions. Among them is the tempo, which is the speed of the song. If a song is sad, the tempo is often slower. If a song is meant to be happy, the tempo is quick and light. If the intention of a song is to bring about fear, it is either extremely slow and eerie or quick and adrenaline pumping. Another factor of interpretation is the key it is in. A key is, “a particular scale or system of tones” (Dictionary.com). There are 24 different keys that are separated into two categories. These categories are major and minor. The major are made up of more sharps, and the minor of more flats. The major key is used to express feelings of joy and happiness. The minor key however, is used to express feelings of sadness, depression, and regret. When the two are awkwardly combined, the key of the music changes to neither minor or major, and is referred to as a dissonance. A dissonance is defined as, “a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion” (Dictionary.com). When a passage of music uses a dissonance, the ultimate goal is to create ...
A person can do more than just dance to music; they clean, laugh, sing, cry, and make some of the greatest memories while enjoying music. Music can take us back in time to past memories, whether they are good or bad. It can make us think of different phases of our life. Just hearing one song can take us back years. It can make us think of a certain person at a particular part in time. The words and lyrics in songs have a way of relating to some people. (White) (Lyon, Suzanne)
Even though many find opera unintelligible, overwhelming, and boring, opera continues to be a popular form of storytelling. People love the drama and the musical masterpieces written by well-known French, Italian, and German composers. The addition of beautiful costumes and eye-catching scenery make opera an attractive form of entertainment. However, even with all these positive elements, many avoid opera like the plague. The goal of this paper is to help eliminate these negative opinions by educating the opera challenged, to love, or at least tolerate the fine art of opera.
one thing. That is emotion. Emotion is what a piece of music is made for.
Sometimes the emotion that the music brings is very noticeable. For example, if someone is attempting to recover after the death of a loved one and they hear a song that reminds them of that person, it can create different emotions quickly. The song could make that person remember the good times that they had together and make them happy, or it could make them extremely sad.... ... middle of paper ...