Opera and Beyond Chapter 14

Opera – a staged drama that is predominantly sung, most often with orchestral accompaniment Performers are musicians primarily, then actors as well. Opera is the plural form of the word opus and literally means work of art

Origins of Opera Began around 1600 in Italy, stories originally based on ancient mythology, natural speech-singing sounds with minimal accompaniment Overtime, the performances became more complex with choruses and arias – songs for a solo singer and orchestra interspersed with recitative – sung conversation between characters to help advance the storyline

Opera seria – a serious form of opera with lofty heroic theme from history or mythology By around 1780, the orchestra became more important in performances, so dramatic aspects of the opera began to change. Opera buffa – comic opera, more down-to-earth stories Mozart’s 1786 opera The Marriage of Figaro (the emergence of modern opera)

By 1750, opera was a worldwide success By 1750, opera was a worldwide success. Topics shifted from myths to topics of a personal and psychological nature. Stories focused more on the problems of everyday life. Verismo – a style of Italian opera with realistic portrayals of everyday life Composer Giacomo Puccini made this style sentimental and pretty and composed some of the most popular operas of all time.

La Boheme “the greatest love story ever sung” Puccini wrote the music, Giuseppe Giacose and Luigi Illica wrote the libretto Libretto – the text of an opera or musical, including the dialogue and lyrics Opened in 1896, critics did not look favorably on the opera at first Story is based from a novel

The Characters Rodolfo – a poet who dreams of love Marcello – a painter with a temper Schaunard – a witty musician Colline – a melancholy philosopher Mimi – the “girl next door”, has tuberculosis Musetta – Marcello’s ex-girlfriend

The Story “In both Murger’s novel and Puccini’s opera, the heroine, Mimi, dies of consumption, or TB. This disease was commonly associated with the bohemian lifestyle in nineteenth-century art. Mimi’s death is a powerful metaphor for the overwhelming value of love in life. Death reminds us that life is short, that youth is brief, and that love is the most important things in the world. These are real human emotions that are captured in the power of the words and music.” Fermata – the sustaining of a pitch Pathos – the feeling of sympathetic pity or compassion for a character

Rent – Celebrating Bohemia a Century Later La Boheme influenced the 1996 hit Rent by Jonathan Larson. He died tragically of a heart attack before the show opened. The show went on to win 4 Tony Awards and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Many similarities/upgrades between the shows – characters’ names, jobs; the fatal disease is AIDS, not TB

Characters Mark – filmmaker Roger – a guitar player/songwriter Collin – college philosophy professor Angel – street musician, transgender, has AIDS Mimi -