MAPEH 9 - OPERA

• Vocal music

  One of the best tools for expressing one's feelings
• Romanticism coincided with the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe that brought about the rise of socialism and capitalism
• Romantic period's basic quality


  • Emotional subjectivity
• Romantic vocal forms


  • Art song
  • Operas
• Romantic vocal forms


  About fantasy, supernatural, romance and the nature as mirror of the human heart
• Virtuoso performers


  • Not only instrumentalists but also singers
  • One singer sometimes sounds like several characters by use of different vocal register
• Opera


  A story (libretto) told by the composers through music while using the words of the librettist

  
• Creating an opera


  1. Composer and librettist work closely together to tell the story

  2. The book they put together is called a score

  3. The score has all the musical notes, words, and ideas to help the performers tell the story

  4. Sometimes, there is spoken dialogue without music
• Different roles in Operas

  • Created considering different types of voices
  • Each role requires a different type of singer, not only able to sing a given vocal range but also with certain voice characteristics, colors, and power
• Recitative


  Declamatory singing, used in the prose parts and dialogue of opera
• Aria


  • A song which poetically and musically reflects dramatic feeling
  • A beautiful aria can bring an audience to its feet and decide the fate of an entire opera
  • An air or solo singing part that the public will remember best when leaving the opera houses
• Male voice classifications


  • Tenor - highest male voice within the modal register (plays the hero or lover)
  • Baritone - middle male voice, lies between bass and tenor voices. It is the common male voice. (plays the villain or antagonists)
  • Bass - Lowest male voice (plays the priests, kings, father or sometimes devil)
• Female voice classifications


  • Soprano - Highest female voice
  • Mezzo-Soprano - most common female voice; strong middle voice; lower than that of Soprano and higher than that of the contralto; tone is darker or deeper than the soprano
  • Contralto - Lowest female voice and most unique among females. A true operatic contralto is extremely rare
• Opera buffa


  Use variety of comedic plot lines and funny characters to entertain the audience
• Opera seria


  Serious Opera, Usually implies heroic or tragic drama that employs mythological characters, which was inherited from Baroque period
• Libretto


  • It contains the text of an opera (story or plot)
  • Librettist and the composer work closely together to tell the story
• Score


  • The book that the composer and librettist put together
  • It has all the musical notes, words, and ideas to help the performers tell the story
  • Often, there are operas with overtures, preludes, prologues, several acts, finales, and postludes
• Composers of vocal forms during the Romantic period

  • Franz Schubert
  • Giuseppe Verdi
  • Giacomo Puccini
  • Richard Wagner
  • Georges Bizet
• Franz Schubert


  • The proper name for his songs is lieder, which is the German word for "song"
  • He developed lieder so that they had a powerful dramatic impact on the listeners
  • He is considered the last of the classical composers and one of the first romantic ones
  • Famous Lieder: Gretchen am Spinnrade, Erlkonig, Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria) and Schwanenge sang (Swan Song)
• Giuseppe Verdi


  • He studied in Busseto and later went to Milan where his first opera "Oberto" was performed in La Scalla (the most important Opera House that time)
  • All of his works are serious love story with unhappy ending. Expressive vocal melody is the soul of Verdi opera
  • He completed 25 operas through his career; La Traviata, Rigoletto, Falstaff, Otello and Aida (he wrote for the opening of Suez Canal)

  
• Giacomo Puccini


  • He belonged to a group of composers who stressed realism; therefor, he drew material from everyday life, rejecting heroic themes from mythology and history
  • His famous Operas were: "La Boheme", "Tosca", "Madame Butterfly", and "Turandot"
• Richard Wagner


  • He was very inspired by Ludwig Beethoven
  • He introduced new ideas in harmony and in form such as extremes of chromaticism
  • Advocate of a new form of opera known as "music drama" where musical and dramatic elements fuse together
  • Developed a compositional style in which the orchestra has of equal importance in dramatic roles as the singers themselves
  • Famous works: "Tristan and Isolde", "Die Walkyrie", "Die Meistersinger", "Tanhauser" and "Parsifal"
• Georges Bizet


  • His original name is Alexandre-César-Léopold Bizet
  • Most famous opera is "Carmen" which opened first in Paris
  • The shows received a terrible reviews and was criticized in horrible ways
  • During the first round of "Carmen" performances, Bizet died (June 3, 1875)
  • Four months later, "Carmen" opened in Vienna, Autria, and was a smash hit