Pavarotti's Breakdown

Giovanni and Lusanna by Gene Brucker is an organized depiction of the two Florentine lovers, Giovanni della Casa and his lover Lusanna. The story of these two lovers begin on their secret 12 year affair, but ends in calamity when Lusanna’s brother Benedetto Girolamo files a lawsuit against Giovanni claiming he had broken his marriage vows by marrying an aristocratic woman Marietta. The book goes into full detail with notaries, archbishops, deceiving witnesses, and slut shaming. A scandal that breaks social norms in 15th century Florence, this book was written with expressiveness, intellect and interest that is surely able to keep the reader intrigued.

Danticat uses her Uncles loss of voice, to show us how different and hard it can be to not have a voice at all. When Danticat was 9 years old, her uncle was diagnosed with throat cancer and the doctors told him that he would need a radical laryngectomy to save his life. Danticat recalls her uncle, a bishop, having a grand voice, a voice that would invoke people to listen when she states, “he would model Fignolé’s forceful and direct Creole diction and speak in a clear, powerful bass, allowing only a few well-chosen pauses” (Danticat p.31) However, as a bishop, her father recalls a time when he’d watched his brother give a

He likely had a slight speech impediment and weak, high-pitched

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

2. I agree with Ms. Narwin, because Philip did sing loudly, but only on the last day. on the first two days Philip was only humming, but loudly, to annoy Ms. Narwin. “Philip Malloy: No. Not at all. Just, you know, sort of to myself. Almost humming. Really. I always do.” (Avi, 62) Philip then did continue on to be

An older boy remembered his father, a hardworking blue collar man. He remembered how his father would walk into the home each evening with scraped hands and perspiration stained shirts. His father was a tough man. He was the kind of man that refused to go to the doctor and rarely hugged his children. Yet, he was a good man. The boy remembered how his father provided for the family and often times his smallest actions proved his paternal love for them. One particular memory stood out among the rest. His father had returned home from work late one evening. He had been out celebrating his pay raise with some of his co-workers down at the local pub. He waltzed through the door bursting with

On October 21st of 1925, I entered into the musical climate of Havana, Cuba. Me han dado el nombre de Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso. Within my first moments in the world, I was welcomed by mother, Catalina Alfonso Cruz, and my father, Simon Cruz. I was raised in a house of 14 children, including my three siblings and other relatives, within a poor neighborhood by the name of Santos Suarez. As a child, I had a true love for music as I would often listen to the radio, go to ballrooms, and sing the younger children to sleep. I was known for singing in community events and competing in singing contests. Recognition of my voice came when I sung “Nostalgia”, a tango song, in La Hora de Té. My father believed

This first person account gives the reader great insight on how one individual can stand up against what the rest of society appreciates. First off, the speaker starts off by saying, “It was 1945 and Frankie, the Voice, was singing at the Paramount” (1). This quote shows that the speaker does appreciate Frank Sinatra and his fame because she refers to him as the “Voice”. Following that quote the

When I read, “My Papa’s Waltz,” I didn’t see any abuse going on in the story presented. I also thought the child was a little girl, not a little boy. Not quite sure why I saw the child as a girl though, I guess I just imagined a father dancing with his daughter from the title alone. Like at a wedding, when the father and daughter dance. And so, I had thought that this was an awkward dance between a father and his daughter. The father was drunk, of course, from the line, “The whiskey on your breath.” So I imagined the father kept accidently bumping into things in the house and therefore, accidently hurting his child by smashing her against counters or drawers in the house. And of course, the mother, and perhaps wife of the man, looked on in

Fairytales have been told for thousands of years. Some of the most famous fairy tales were German in origin and were collected by the Grimm brothers. Jakob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm were scholars that spent most of their time together. In 1838, they began writing a German dictionary while they were working as librarians. In 1840 king Fredrich Wilhelm IV sent both brothers to the Royal Academy of Sciences. (Gioia) (pp.12-13) Following this the two brothers spent the rest of their lives teaching at the University of Berlin. The two brothers were also known for other projects such as, books about mythology, scholarly works on topics such as, linguistics and medieval studies. They also worked on compiling an ambitious German

8 When you refer to the narrative of the story, use the present tense, as in the following: “Sammy decides that he can no longer continue to work at the store.” Don’t write: “Sammy decided that he could no longer

My papa’s waltz is a reflection of love and emotion between a father and a son. It demonstrates the childhood experience between a father and a son. As a concept, fear doesn’t make us hate people, it makes us love them even more, especially, if they are our parents. In this poem the speaker conveys his emotions and feelings towards his father. As we first read the poem it seems that the speaker is afraid of his father. The first line of this poem “The whiskey on your breath, could make a small boy dizzy.” It seems that the father was alcoholic and the little son was afraid of him. But as we move ahead in the poem the image of the poem changes and it appears more of a dance between a father and a son. Even though the son could not bear the smell of the alcohol but he still cling on to his father and he do not want to leave him. This is the most moving para as the son was small and scared but the feeling of love overpowered the feeling of fear in these lines.

The Godfather opens with a dark trumpet solo, which were the opening titles for The Godfather Part II and III too. This is Vito's theme. The theme is a waltz, but unlike an ordinary waltz, it evokes a range of varied emotions. It sounds intimate in the garden scene but threatening in the actual main title and "The Halls of Fear," for the scene in which Michael finds his father without protection in the hospital. The final appearance of the theme in the first film is over the end credits, where it is more sad than intimate or threatening.

In The Interpretation of Music, Thurston Dart writes: 'it is very unlikely that any vibrato was used in the ensemble singing of earlier times; the few theorists who mention it condemn it' (51). In light of the intricate counterpoint employed by Renaissance and late medieval composers, it is natural that clear intonation would have been vital to the clarity of their multi-voiced compositions. David Wulstan suggests that in singing the decorated Baroque songs, singers surely had to provide contrast between trilled and untrilled notes: 'Baroque singers could hardly have sung in such a way that trills were indistinguishable from the surrounding gelatinous wobble' (179). Singers today, in an effort to project their voices in huge performance venues have to use their voice in way that produces, in most cases, a large vibrato. Large vibratos can make it difficult, at times, to hear a distinct pitch, and therefore trills (alternating quickly between two adjacent pitches) are also difficult to hear. Thus, it is easy to idealize a pure vocal quality so that there is a clear contrast between trilled and untrilled notes. Contrast is, after all, one defining characteristic of Baroque era musicÑthus, the amateur assumption has a reasonable basis.

Despite him trying out various vocal exercises with different therapists, it is made obvious to us that the