Puccini's La Boheme Essay

The Italian composer Chiara Margarita Cozzolani was one of the few women who could compose well known music during the Baroque Era. Religious wars were raging on across Europe, and many of Cozzolani’s musical pieces focus on religion and musical dialogues, which portrayed notable religious scenes from the bible (Forney, Dell'Antonio, & Machlis 111). One of Cozzolani’s pieces, Magnificat, was focused on in our textbook. After listening to the piece and reading some history about Cozzolani and her music, I felt like I could really understand what was happening during that time in history and how she wanted to make people feel with her music. Chiara Margarita Cozzolani’s music relates to the Baroque Era of music for several reasons. First of all,

top of the fact that she is assured that her loved ones are safe. This shows that music is a source

Music affects our emotions and has much to do with our everyday lives. Music has always and will be a part of my life. I would have to say that without music there is no life -- something is missing in our lives without music. If there were no music society we would only have people speaking to each other, and there would be no entertainment. The form of musical entertainment that I attended was the opera, La Boheme, composed by Giacommo Puccini and Libretto by Giuseppe and Luigi Illica. The opera took place at The New City Opera on November 10, 2001. La Boheme takes place in 1830, 19th century Paris around Christmas time. This opera tells the tragic love story of a young Bohemian, Rodolfo, who finds a love interest in

The interesting fact about this composition is that the tempo is expressive of “religious solemnity” (Pilich). Obviously one can comprehend the fact that music contains not only mere words but can foster certain emotions that are associated with a particular piece of music.

Contextually, there are themes of love, betrayal, and patriotism represented. We see love through Kind Nabucco's love for his daughter Fenena, and his constant want to help and protect her. It is almost through this love that he is redeemed, and made whole again. We also see the love between Ismaele and Fenena as pure and genuine. Although this opera is not

Again in the last stanza Monteverdi uses word painting along with a dissonance to create his theme of unrequited love. “I’ mi morro” is repeated many times in a combination of tones that sound discordant, unstable, resolving in silence. In the end the voices fade out when they say, “tacendo” showing this resolution.

Few of the musical numbers are direct callbacks to La Boheme, but “Light My Candle” almost completely recreates the scene when Rodolfo and Mimi first meet and fall in love. Larson modernized it as he did with the rest of their character traits, by changing her lost key to a stash of heroin, among other small aspects. However, the actions that drive the scene are effectively the same. Mimi enters, looking to have Roger light her candle, she drops her stash, and he pretends that he hasn’t found it. The song “La Vie Boheme” also pays homage to a scene in La Boheme, in addition to its title. The cast of the opera, just as they do in the modern show, visits a café together without the means of paying for their meal. “Goodbye Love” draws parallels to a scene in La Boheme when Mimi overhears Rodolfo complaining to Marcello about his inability to care for

An aria from Barbiere that incorporates many of the typical buffa elements is 'La calunnia é un venticello' from the first act. Often called the 'Calumny aria', La calunnia is the first aria sung by the unscrupulous music teacher, Don Basilio. He sings to Bartolo about defaming Almaviva through calumny, malicious lies. The aria opens slowly, softly in D major as Basilio describes his slander as a gentle breeze which begins to gather force. Rossini's orchestration embodies this concept, as a simple ascending scale in thirds begins in the strings. The pianissimo marking gives way to piano as the pattern moves to a phrase in b minor. The tune continues to meander through tonalities until it arrives back in D major. Basilio reiterates that his lies “gather

In any musical drama, be it opera, oratorio, or even musical theatre, it is possible for a composer to convey the personality of their characters through compositional and musical techniques. Doing so heightens the audience’s understanding of the characters, their motivations, and the relationships between them. Monteverdi, as a pioneer of opera, was one of the first to capitalize on this opportunity to heighten the audience’s understanding of the characters. This is highly apparent in his last opera, L’Incoronazione di Poppea. The music for two of the characters, Poppea and Nerone, is especially well composed to demonstrate personality, and this is no more apparent than in the dialogue which introduces the audience to them, Signor, deh

Darkness is manifested through the reality within Cosi and the fantasy aspect contained in the play, Cosi Fan Tutte. The darkness behind the truth in regards to the nature of humanity is vastly explored. Louis Nowra has integrated such concepts within the comical play. Set during the 1970’s, the seemingly contemporary situations reveal much of the dismal reality most had experienced during that time. Throughout the play, the Cold war is also acknowledged, therefore elucidating the idea whereby, much of the ‘dark’ aspect of the play was a result from this conflict. Furthermore, the character’s perspective upon certain concepts such as infidelity, becomes a portal to the reality during those times. The inclusion of Cosi Fan Tutte represents

The analysis of the aria “Lascia ch'io pianga” by Haendel according to the thorough bass method, shows us how the composer refer in this piece to the typical compositional procedures of baroque music.

Just so you know before hand, the lyrics to the music came from the CD with trademark of Delta Music Inc. The movement opens agitatedly as the orchestra picks up fragments of one theme after another from the previous three movements, as if seeking a satisfactory vehicle for its expression; but each is discarded in turn. The first seven notes of the main theme to come are tentatively uttered, but it too is abandoned as the search continues. Once again the theme begins, this time in the woodwinds, but it soon breaks off. Finally, the theme emerges decisively in the basses for a subdued first statement. The second statement is calm, tranquil, confident, and the theme continues onward in the various voices of the orchestra, broad and flowing. The winds make a strong statement of the theme. The flow of the music abruptly halts--there are rapid shifts--great agitation, until the orchestra introduces the baritone singing the first three lines of the poem, rejecting the feverish discords of the previous passage, calling for a different music, whose nature is suggested by the strings beneath his voice:

The Decameron, by Boccaccio, is a frame story written in the mid fourteenth century. There are a hundred stories told over a span of ten days. On the second day, a man tells a story about a princess, Alatiel, who was sent away to marry a king. Before Alatiel reaches her destination, she has sexual experiences with a lot of different men. Alatiel is treated like an object and allows this objectification to happen because she is so fickle and does nothing to stop the men. The fickleness of Alatiel and the treatment of her as an object is evident throughout the story.

His many works include the “Palazzo di Parte Guelfa,” the “Rotonda degli Angeli,” and the “Ponte a Mare at Pisa.” There is however some debate to whether Brunelleschi was responsible for the original designs for the Pitti Palace. After his death he was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore. However, his tomb was not discovered until 1972 (Lombroso 5).

Scott accomplished the crucial love-plight without a single word of dialogue, which is not very reasonable for opera. Happily ignoring Scott’s need to move the plot along, Donizetti gives lovers, Lucia and Edgardo, a dreamy love duet theme, which breathes the essence of bel canto romantic love.12 In addition, Lucia’s actions in the operatic mad scene, spur from this passage: