The curse of Monterone At the end of scene 1 of act 1 of Giuseppe Verdi’s famous opera, Rigoletto, the Duke’s hunchbacked court jester (Rigoletto, a baritone) is cursed by Count Monterone (also a baritone); this incident is commonly referred to as the curse of Monterone. The scene goes as follows: the Count of Monterone, furious with the Duke for having seduced his daughter and dishonored his family name, barges into the Duke’s extravagant ball seeking revenge and dramatically changing the mood and tone of the scene. Rigoletto, who is ever eager to remain in favor with the Duke, cruelly mocks the Count (which only serves to further enrage him). Interestingly, instead of putting a booming orchestra underneath the deep voices of the Count and Rigoletto, Verdi instead chose to use violins to indicated the intense nervousness of the situation. The Duke promptly has the Count arrested, and as he is being taken away by the guards the Count turns to Rigoletto and delivers a powerful curse upon him. It is the curse of a father, and Rigoletto, who is a …show more content…
As it is generally understood today, bel canto refers to the Italian-originated vocal style which prevailed throughout most of Europe during the 18th century until about 1840. It originated with the first operas during the Baroque era (early 1700s) and was later revived by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. During this time, bel canto was a reassertion of the emphasis on the voice as the most important expressive element in opera, in distinct contrast to the other popular operatic vocal styles of the time. The words of bel canto operas can be rather dull, but their open vowels allow singers to create beautiful music that effectively expresses the feelings of the character. The vocal line in bel canto scores calls for soft, rounded notes and great agility in ornamentation and
William Shakespeare has written thirty-seven plays, one of his most known is Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet, the main characters, fall in love but, they are rivals. No one approved of their love and they committed suicide three days after they were married. Capulet is responsible for the downfall and death of Romeo and Juliet because he didn’t stop Tybalt from trying to kill Romeo and he kicked Juliet out of the house. Some may say it’s Benvolio’s fault but he did not have control over the chain of events, starting at the Capulet costume party.
A report was received on 06/05/2017 alleging that the mother (Hermionne) left Ashante (C-V 17) with a non-relative since 02/2017 without any legal rights. According to the report, the mother refuses to take her child back home and will not engage with Ms. Aarons (caretaker) to provide legal documentation for the child to be enroll in school and taken to a Primary Care Physician. Ashante has not been is school for the past 4 months and are unable to enroll in school without paperwork. According to the report, Ashante self mutilates her arms, and the mother refuses to get counseling. The report indicates Ashante was to follow-up with a Cardiologist for a chest pain and the mother refuses to take her to the doctor.
“‘What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?/ Turn thee, Benvolio. Look upon thy death’” (Romeo and Juliet.1.1.56-57). The person threatening Benvolio is Tybalt Capulet from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was a play written in the mid-1590s, and it involved two “star crossed lovers” (Prologue.6), Romeo and Juliet, from feuding families that eventually took their lives to be together. One important character in the play was Tybalt, a teenager of the house of Capulet and Juliet’s cousin. He was very skilled with a sword and very prideful. Tybalt was killed by Romeo in 3.1. Even though Tybalt was directly killed by Romeo in Act 3 of Romeo and Juliet, there are many other factors that indirectly led to his downfall, including Romeo and Juliet’s secrets, the ancient grudge, and Tybalt’s pride.
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
Music during the Baroque period was diverse and composers began to rebel against the styles that were popular during the Renaissance. In the Baroque era music was driven by the text and the emotions behind it. Vocal and sacred music developed greatly during the Baroque period. During the mid-17th century the Italian phenomenon opera dominated most of the theatres in Europe. Sacred music was deeply influenced by the opera, contributing to the development of the oratorio and cantata genre. The opera, oratorio, and cantata contain musical similarities; among all three genres they feature recitative, soloist orchestras, and duet arias.
The musical style of the renaissance can be noted in the vocal forms by smoothly gliding melodies. This became regarded as the golden age of cappella style, which is music without instrumental accompaniment. Polyphony in renaissance style was based on continuous imitation. This offered many possibilities such as cantus firmus.
Act III, Scene I sees Mercutio slain by Tybalt, ending the life of the main character bringing humour into the play, all just for a petty family rivalry.
The voice is considered as the most important element in the Italian Opera. On top of the polyphonic accompaniment for the orchestra, melody
Bel Canto was a form of singing that was pretty much defined by three Italian composers: Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. These three composers had huge success in Italy and their operas are still being performed to this day. These captivating operas like Il barbiere di Sivilglia, Lucia di lammermoor, and Norma are three of the most popular and challenging operas that singers can be involved in. These three composers really set the stage for the rise of Italian opera.
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
Shakespeare is very well known for his inclusion of tragic flaws throughout the storylines of his novels. Hero’s, as courageous as they may seem, are just like any other person and go through flaws throughout their lifetime regardless of the extent of their situation. In Shakespeare’s novel Othello, with all the events twisting the readers mind from one side to another, there are many distinct qualities that portray Othello’s tragic flaw. Iago was portrayed as an honest character but with his careful deceptions jabbing in Othello’s mind, he is far from honest. Othello’s tragic flaw is that he trusts others opinions more than his own perceptions and Shakespeare develops this flaw by using convincing persuasive appeals and strong syntax throughout
When students study to sing Italian bel canto opera, it’s better to use the work which performed by people who is original singer to imitate and practice. However, there are still a series of problems will happen for non-Italian students when they are study singing the opera, for example Semiramide. Bel raggio lusinghier. Even according to the video soundtrack to imitate, the overall effect artistic and performances is not satisfactory. The problems are pronunciation hesitation, slurred speech, unknown the meaning of the text. All of these problems will reduce the bel canto opera artistry.
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.
Baroque Period, during which a few of the greatest composers on this planet were born, brought classical music onto a whole new level. The word “Baroque”, which came from the Portuguese for “the imperfect pearl”, implies strange, extravagant and overblown. Toccata, fugue, chorale, ortario, and the concerto Grosso, all of these special musical forms were created and represent this period. The six main characteristics: increased emotional expression, contrast, use of basso continuo, continued harmonic development, use of ornament, and the emphasis of improvisation, molded the unique style of music of the Baroque period.
The beginning of the seventeenth century marked the start of opera in Italy. The earliest opera manuscripts to survive are the two settings of Euridici by Peri and Caccini (Grout 43). Although Euridici is the first known opera, Peri and Caccini were both not considered the founder of opera, that honor was instead given to Monteverdi (Grout 51). The reason for this may be because Euridici is said to contain many imperfections including: “weakness of characterization, the limited range of emotions expressed, the lack of clear, consistent musical organization, and above all the monotony of the solo style” (Grout 49). Grout explains that Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo “represents the first attempt to apply the full resources of the art of music to opera” (53). La morte d’Orfeo was the first secular opera performed in Rome in 1619 (Grout 62). This marked the beginning of serious secular opera. Opera continued to