Russian Opera Essay

The introduction of Christianity into Russia spurred the development of the country’s fine arts. For 600 years, Christian forms of art dominated Russian painting, music, architecture, and literature. Russian artists, however, applied their unique vision and dramatically altered the style imported so it became their own. Especially in painting, the blending of foreign influences with native genius produced some of the world’s most beautiful icons. In the early 15th century Andrey Rublyov, one the greatest of

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the author of six symphonies and the finest and most popular operas in the Russian repertory. Tchaikovsky was also one of the founders of the school of Russian music. He was a brilliant composer with a creative imagination that helped his career throughout many years. He was completely attached to his art. His life and art were inseparably woven together. "I literally cannot live without working," Tchaikovsky once wrote, "for as soon as one piece of work is finished and one would wish to relax, I desire to tackle some new work without delay." The purpose of this paper is to give you a background concerning Tchaikovsky's biography, as well as to discuss his various works of

Igor Stravinsky was third of a family of four boys. He grew up hearing his father practicing his opera and attending local ballets. He also started taking piano lessons when he was 9 years old and continued on with musical notation and composition instruction. All throughout his early life he studied music. However, although he had been brought

Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 and showed an aptitude for music at a young age. In 1919, he enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory where his abilities mesmerized the head of the institution, Alexander Glazunov. Shostakovich was never politically naïve; he imitated his parent’s ideals who initially

technically fell under the heading of classical composer but in reality he was the first composer

Looking back in time at the great composers of the world, only one foreign composer stands out for his many contributions to classical music and in helping America to find its own music. Antonin Leopold Dvorak was born on September 8th, 1841, in a small village of Nelahozeves in Bohemia that lies on the bank of the Mauldau River. The village Dvorak was born into was in good company and surroundings however also retained much of its native luster even through the worst times of political oppression (1).

Modest Mussorgsky was born March 9, 1839. His father was a landowner and his mother was a pianist. His mother gave him his first lessons on the piano. Later instead of going to college his father sent him and his brother to school that would get you ready for the military life. The school is called Peter-Paul school. Knowing his son’s talent in music he let them have a music teacher at the school who taught them.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7th, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk. His father, Ilya Petrovich, was a mining engineer and Chief Inspector of the metal works and his mother was Alexandra Tchaikovsky. It was from her that Tchaikovsky inherited his depressed personality. Tchaikovsky developed his love of music from listening to tunes from Italian operas played on the family’s orchestrion – a mechanical barrel-organ which roughly reproduced musical sounds. In September 1844, Tchaikovsky’s mother was visiting St. Petersburg when her husband proudly reported that Tchaikovsky and his sister, Sasha, had written a song called, “Our Mama in Petersburg.”

Tchaikovsky=s first masterpiece was composed from 1869-1870. It was a symphonic fantasy based on Shakespeare=s Romeo and Juliet. ARomeo and Juliet@ was the first of Tchaikovsky=s works in which his superbly

Rossini is probably the most popular composer of this era. His works are many and are extremely popular. Rossini was born in Pesaro in 1792 and on December15th, 1815 when he was only twenty-three years old, he signed a contract to write an opera for a theater in Rome (Weaver, 11). His childhood friend, Gertrude Righetti Giorgi, premiered as Rosina in Rossin’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, on opening night for the Nobile Teatro di Torre Argentina (Weaver, 19). Il barbiere di Siviglia went on to become one of the more famous operas of Rossini’s. This opera went through many struggles, however, because of the similar story

At 1889, he attended the Paris International Exposition, where he discovered the wondrous colours of Asian music that picked up his interest. He was also fascinated by the pieces composed by the Russian composers Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, therefore he was lured in to the folk music of Russia soon after.

From September of 1850 to May of 1859, Tchaikovsky attended the School of Jurisprudence. At this boarding school in St. Petersburg, he received an excellent education and further pursued his interest in music. During this time,

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was one of the greatest composers of Soviet Russia. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is regarded today as the father of Western music. They came from opposite ends of music history and lived in entirely different environments, but Shostakovich was undoubtedly influenced by Bach’s music, and their respective musical styles came from the same core tradition of Western music. But most importantly, underneath the obvious differences and the subtle similarities, these composers shared the same artistic spirit.

At the Salzburg Festival in 2005, Valery Gergiev conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in its performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov‘s Scheherazade, Op. 35 (Classical Music db 1). He is a highly achieved, accomplished and revered conductor and is considered to have “attained a level of worldly power perhaps unmatched by any living classical musician” (qtd. by Alex Ross 1). All the wile, this orchestra is considered to be one of the premium orchestras in the World (Moderato 1). Between the two, a performance is created that instantly catches one’s attention with its gentle opening by trumpets, followed by a cello solo, and then the flutes follow with their soft, fluttering sound that makes the listener gently sway with the music. Images of a soft ocean breeze come to mind and its audience is mesmerized.

She was the widow of a wealthy railroad tycoon and a great admirer of his work. She provided him with a monthly allowance allowing him to focus solely on his work as a composer. The two never met in person but they did write each other and exchanged their views on many different subjects (Poznansky, “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky”). With this newfound freedom he was able to travel throughout Europe and America. This freedom allowed him to find the creativity he needed for his music (Wright,