Opera Singers Career Essay

The Opera is described as the relationship between words and music. Opera is dramatic staged secular vocal work with orchestral accompaniment .Consisting of alternating recitatives, arias, and chorus numbers. Soloists, solo ensembles, choruses, dancing, dramatic action, costumes, staging are all components of opera. It was important because it added interest in dramas and music and it created interest is homophonic texture. Cantata was another important Baroque style. Cantata extended solo or choral work. It was created for Lutheran worship service. Cantatas include harmonized chorales, polyphonic choruses, arias, recitatives, solo ensembles, and instrumental accompaniment. Oratorio is dramatic work for chorus, solo voices, and orchestra. It is similar to cantata except it is longer and to a larger scale. Most were based on biblical texts to teach and entertain. Chamber music works for solo instruments performing together in small ensembles. Trio Sonatas were important chamber music pieces during the Baroque Period. Church sonatas would be performed in church. Chamber sonatas were meant for concert performance. Finally, orchestra varied in size and instrumentation. This style was favored by royalty and wealthy families. Most court orchestra were made up only bowed stringed instruments although woodwinds and others were gradually

Orchestrally, it is scored for strings, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, two flutes, one piccolo, two oboes, one English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four French horns, two trumpets, three trombones, two harps, and one cimbasso. Musically, this opera is very directly vigorous. It sticks to the widely used concepts of arias, duets, finales, and choruses. His fine music often excused the glaring faults in character and plot lines.

The first strictly female-based shows were released in the 1950’s. These musicals attracted more female-based audience members and ticket sales rose exponentially. Musicals such as The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady showed

Anne also needs to convince the musicians of her commitment to the arts and her ability to lead such a prestigious organization and to do so, she will need to highlight her past accomplishments. Anne has had enormous success in directing operas, including serving as stage director for over 60 opera productions world wide, including the adored San Francisco Opera. In addition, she had stints as assistant director at the San Francisco Opera and the Canadian Opera. She also sought to increase the amount of productions during her time at the Boston Lyrics Opera instead of decreasing them to help retire the debt there. This should convince the musicians not only of Anne’s ability to lead them but also of her desire to build an elite arts

Oratorios were performed in prayer halls, which was a sacred setting similar to the cantata. Oratorios were recitative and contained de capo arias and chorus, like the Italian opera. It was sung drama performed without staging or costumes. “The catholic church saw the power of operas and was quick to take on operas for sacred subjects, such as the lives of saints. However, the church also condemned operas for its power to seduce and dazzle, banning the performance of opera during Advent and Lent.”3 George Handel, an opera composer also composed Messiah, which was one of the best-known oratorios. Another important composer of this genre was Giacomo Carissimi, who wrote many early

Her musical background began in a church, before getting an opportunity to be a performer, she faced a lot rejections.

Patricia Lynn Racette was born the middle child of three siblings, in 1965 Manchester New Hampshire. Her father was a representative for Pepsi while her mother was a part time bank employee. She began her interest in music by learn to play the guitar at age 8, this also sparked her interest in vocal music. For high school, she attended Manchester High school West. Here she became most active in her school’s music programs. After Racette graduated from high school, she proceeded to attend at the University of North Texas. While attending this college with the intent to study jazz, it was requested of her to consider opera. At this suggestion, she decided to make opera her major, and discovered that she enjoyed opera with a passion. During her final year of school, she received first prize in auditions for the Merola Opera Program for training of the San Francisco Opera. At the community college in Fort Worth Texas, Racette gave her very first

Don Giovanni can be characterized as a comic opera due to its indulgence with tragic themes, such as crime and murder, in an astoundingly funny manner. By definition, an opera is an art form in which the composers combine dramatic works with musical scores and libretto or text in theatrical settings. The singing may be either melodic or recitative. Traditionally, operas incorporate most of the typical elements of spoken theatre, including

The oratorio and cantata of the eighteenth century were both linked, unlike opera, to religious themes. Although intended for very different uses and circumstances of performance, all three genres contained musical commalities. Not surprisingly, the three genres would

As stated by Burkholder, Grout and Palisca, Weber’s Der Freischutz’s “rustic choruses, marches, dances and airs”; multisectional aria form (influence from Rossini) and florid vocal lines were all common characteristics of the Italian Opera. Meanwhile in Verdi’s Otello, Wagnerian influence could be seen. Verdi used melodic motives to show the characters’ emotions. In Act 4 scene 3, the orchestra was used to heighten the dramatic moment instead of the voice, which was a breakthrough in the history of Italian Opera. It is apparent that both Italians and Germans knew how to blend the musical elements and text well to demonstrate the Romantic traits in their opera.

4. While an aria is one of the main components to an opera, there are several other components that that contribute to the story line. An aria is a song for a single voice along with orchestral accompaniment. For the most

There were also stricter demands of the solo singers. The two mid eighteenth century composers, Jomelli and Traetta played a big part in the reform of Italian opera in the late 18th century by influencing the French towards opera of a more international flavour.

Opera in the Romantic Period was a time when opera changed drastically, especially in the country of Italy. The recognition of singers as being important, almost irreplaceable, in the art of “bel canto” opera changed the idea of a vocalist in opera forever. A singer’s voice was prized and Italian composers, like Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini wrote operas and works to showcase the voice, it’s color, range and agility. These Italian composers were moving away from the normal style of composition of the time, and the composer Rossini, who set the stage for many other followers. Many of the operas written during this time are still performed today and are highly acclaimed. For the most part, before Italy became a main player, France

The first roots of modern opera first appeared in Italy in the 17th century from the Camerata (an academy of Florentine poets, musicians, and scholars). The Camerata, inspired by ancient Greek drama, sung dialogues and choruses which were accompanied by musical instruments. The Camerata developed the “stile recitative,” in order to integrate drama, action, dialogue and narration. In this “sung speech,” a singer delivered a recitative melody with an actor’s dramatic and oratorical skills, achieving the goal of providing

Donald Grout defines opera in his text, A Short History of Opera, as “a drama in music: a dramatic action, exhibited on stage with scenery by actors in costume, the words conveyed entirely or for the most part by singing, and the whole sustained and amplified by orchestral music” (4). A literal translation of the word opera is simply work, and although the term opera was not coined until 1634, one of the first known operas was performed in 1597 (Grout 1). Grout explains that there are two types of opera. The first type is when the main emphasis is on the music (Grout 6). Examples of this type of opera can be seen in the works of Lully and Wagner (Grout 7). The second type of opera is characterized by the music and other factors being of