Carmen is an opera written by famous French composer George Bizet in 1873. The libretto was written in French by Henri Meilhac and Ludohvic Halevy, with its plot being based on a novella also entitled Carmen, which was written in 1845. The story centers around two main characters: Don Jose, a naïve corporal and Carmen, a seductive Gypsy. Throughout the opera these characters experience have an emotional love experience, although it ends with one dying. Bizet portrayed the ideals of both realism and exoticism within this particular work, which is one of the reasons why it became one of the most popular Western operas in history.
Bizet’s use of exoticism within the opera directly correlates to Carmen’s exotic characteristics and lack of morality. His exoticism portrays characteristics from the “Spanish” or “Gypsy” cultures. A prime example is the “Habanera” Aria (one of the most famous and recognizable melodies from the opera) which is a dance song borrowed from the Cuban culture. During this time Gypsies were associated with a lack of morality as they were stereotyped to have a disr...
...ition to costume, language and dialogue is what fixes the atmosphere and the action. In a manner very similar to Shakespeare, Calderón weaves description of the scene and of what is occurring into the main thrust of the play. In this sense, he is more than a poet, he is a dramatic craftsman who predominantly through his verse alone, creates a drama in its own right. All the clues to the plot and its themes lie in the text; the use of staging, costume, music and props can be used to enhance what lies in the script. What they give to the play is a fuller and more entertaining dramatic production. Thus, if used sensitively and intelligently by a director, these factors can increase the dramatic power of the work. The primary focus, however, remains the language, which relies on a high standard of acting in order to do justice to the subtleties of the play.
In the award winning play The Oxcart “La carreta”, by René Marqués is about a Puerto Rican family trying to escape poverty by moving to a more prosperous place. The Characters of the Oxcart are: Doña Gabriela who is a widow and the mother of Juanita and chaguito and also the stepmom of Luis, she is very strong woman. Juanita her daughter in the other hand stars off as a docile person whoever after something tragic happens to her she then becomes this strong defying character and eventually she becomes a prostitute. Chaguito is a very naughty boy he loves that streets and hates school he is extremely disrespectful. Don Chago is the father of Luis and Doña Gabriela’s husband he’s the typical and traditional man who won’t leave behind his place of origin. Luis, Doña Gabriela’s stepson, he is the head of the household; he works very hard but eventually dies coincidentally while working. Those are the primarily characters of the Oxcart then we have the others such as Lidia, whose Juanita’s friend while living in New York, we also have Lito, who is a family neighbor while they are living in San Juan, we also have Germana, the nosey neighbor. Matilde who is the one that encourages Juanita to enter the world of prostitution, and then we have Paco, a radio personality that meets Juanita in New York and ask her to marry him. There is also Mr. Parkinton an American preacher and lastly Doña Isabel, a former teacher and Luis’ fiancé’s aunt that also has a brief affair with him
This semester, in comparing works of visual art and opera and particularly between works of the same time period, many parallels emerge. But beyond the scope of individual time periods (e.g., Renaissance, Romanticism, Modern), there are parallels that transcend the scope of time entirely. Individuals of varied cultures and periods in history seem to be invariably fascinated by the idea of an archetypal character whom they can adapt and reinterpret according to the terms of their own zeitgeist and with whom they can identify. A salient example is the Orpheus figure, who hails from the myths of antiquity and has been remade and adapted in operas by composers including Monteverdi, Schütz, Lully, Fux, Telemann, Rameau, Gluck, Haydn, Offenbach, Debussy (in an unfinished project), Milhaud, Birtwistle, and Philip Glass—and that is really only the tip of the iceberg! We see Oprheus depicted as well in paintings by Gennari in the 17th century and by Redon in the 19th century, Corot (1861), dell’Abbate, and Rubens. I could similarly enumerate artists, writers, or composers who have famously depicted any of the figures we have studied this far: the Norse figures held so dear by Wagner, Saint Sebastian...
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,
Junot Diaz’s “Otravida, Otravez” postulates a perspective of life where one’s present and future always reflects their past in some way. Diaz incorporates symbolic figures to convey how a person’s past can be carried into the future. Diaz’s use of symbolic figures includes the dirty sheets washed by Yasmin, the letters sent by Virta to Ramon, and the young girl who begins working with Yasmin at the hospital. These symbolic figures and situations remind the readers that the past will always play a major role in one’s present. Additionally, Diaz’s word choice, where Spanish words appear in many different parts of the reading, suggests that indirectly, one’s past habits are not easily broken.
Grande introduces to the audience various characters that cross Juana 's path to either alter or assist her on her journey to find her father. Through those individuals, Grande offers a strong comparison of female characters who follow the norms, versus those that challenge gender roles that
...lm of curanderismo can be misconstrued due to the ideas and images set upon by another culture. Many of the stereotypes that the author Avila mentions in her book, such as “a folkway” (p.4) and “the devil’s work” (p.5), are said to originate from the dominating culture that tried to paint these traditional practices in a bad light in order for the conquered people to practice the traditions of the dominating culture. An example of this can be drawn from the early attempts to push the dominance of the Catholic Church onto many of the natives, forcing them to assimilate and forget about their ancestral roots. Instead of this choice of either or, the idea of black or white, Elena and La Malinche reveal a choice of gray, one in which all of the choices are meshed together not in order to avoid one culture or the other, but to better and broaden their cultural horizons.
The vulgar imagery of Othello’s ancient dominates the opening of the play. Standing outside the senator’s home late at night, Iago uses imagery within a lie to arouse the occupant: “ Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves! / Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!” When the senator appears at the window, the ancient continues with coarse imagery of animal lust: “...
For a first example of stereotypes, In “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” Judith Ortiz Cofer writes about the many stereotypes that she, as a Puerto Rican woman, has endured. She opens with a tale of how she had been publicly serenaded—on a London bus, of all places—by, as Cofer puts it, “a young man, obviously fresh from a pub” (187). Later on, she mentions a second random serenade of sorts, this time from a older man in a classy metropolitan hotel. The young man sang “Maria” from West Side Story, the older man first chose a song from Evita, then encored with a crudely-worded song to the tune of “La Bamba.” In both situations, whether it was their intention or not, their actions resulted in alienation of the author, singling her out and thrusting the stereotypes of her lineage in her face. The men may have meant well; they may have felt that what they were doing was good-hearted fun. They may have even been trying to...
Bertolt Brecht successfully accomplishes this in his work through his technique called the alienation effect where “he forces the audience to look at everything in a fresh light and, above all, to think” (Barranger, pg. 121). His main goal by using this was for the audience to “absorb his social criticism and to carry new insights out of the theater into their own lives” (Barranger, 121). Valdez applies this technique through his use of the Secretary, representing the American population as a whole, and the stereotypes of the Mexicans. When she is first introduced to Sancho, she comes with a list of criteria for what the Mexican should acquire including: “suave, debonair, dark, but not too dark, beige, American-made and hard-working” (Valdez, p. 1288). From the start of the play, Mexicans are already being stereotyped on how they should look and act to be accepted by Americans and their culture. This gets the audience thinking of their own perception on Mexicans and what qualities they might consider if they were in this situation. From the qualities represented of each of the “models,” the Secretary then denies any quality of the model that isn’t sufficient enough for her liking, and “shops” around until she finds the right
...loss of their friendship but of a man who was both an idol and kindred spirit. In the space Wagner left, Bizet was able to root himself by planting his music. It had roots; it was real and based on experience in that it allowed the audience to brings theirs to the theatre. Where Wagnerian theatre told the audience what to feel, Carmen just told them to feel. It asked the audience to overcome its imperfections, to evaluate why they liked it, what it made them feel. Parsifal made them feel till they believed. Bizet was more appropriate for small theatres in that he only sought to produce the best thing that he could; what was his best over the best. That is the realm of Wagner, and in order to compose the greatest, most popular opera one has to pander to the masses. Those rabble which Nietzsche says are afflicted by the illness of Christianity, morality and decadence.
...e two main forms of Zarzuelo, the Baroque and romantic Zarzuela. The masque-like musical theatre had existed in Spain since the era of Juan del Encina, the genre was giving dramatic function to the musical numbers and choruses were incorporated as well. In 1657 at the Royal Palace of El Prado, King Phili IV of Spain and Queen Mariana attended the first performance of a new comedy by Pedro Calderon de la Barca. The golden age of zarzuela lasted under two decades from the 1920s and 30s. During this period, venues in La Habana hosted a number of production theater shows. Cuban zarzuela played a major role in the development of Cuban identities
Federico García Lorca’s poem “La casada infiel” depicts the story of a gypsy who makes love to a married woman on the shore of a river. When looking deeper into the poem, Lorca appears to provide a critical observation on the values of the conservative society at the time in which he lived. The woman, at her most basic reading, is treated as an object, elaborating on the sexist values in society at the time. Lorca addresses issues of sexism as well as issues of sexuality within society mainly through the poem’s sexist narrative voice, objectification of the female character and overriding sense of a lack of desire throughout the poem. His achievement to do so will be analysed throughout this commentary with particular attention to Lorca’s use of poetic techniques such as diction, personification and imagery.
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.
The reputations of Maria Callas and Madonna as divas have both been earned for different reasons and yet, both can easily place their titles next to each other. All their musical performances have and are adapted to suit the public eye and sheltered by each singer’s creative influence, in order to improve their labels as divas. √ you give your reader a sense of the discussion that will follow, which is good.