An Opera Primer
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Transcript of An Opera Primer
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An Opera Primer
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The LibrettoPlay= Script
Movie= Screenplay
Opera- Libretto
Means “Little Book”
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Composer or Librettist?Composer writes the
music
Librettist writes the songs
Sometimes the same person but not usually
Often feuded
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Why not in English?Usually in Italian or
German
Hard to translate- words don’t rhyme, beats don’t fit
Operas in English are recent, usually rock operas
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Opera or Musical?Operas are
completely sungMusicals intersperse
songs with spoken lines
Opera is traditionally not amplified- singer does it all without microphones
Opera stars do not dance!
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Supertitles to the Rescue!Also called “surtitles”
Similar to close captioning
At opera= translation on screen or the back of the seats
35% growth in sales!
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No supertitles:What the heck is going on?1. Libretto sometimes
has a synopsis
2. Libretto sometimes has a translation
3. Cognates (look alike words)- Italian very close to Spanish
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That’s gonna sting!Castrati (eunuchs)
were the superstars of the opera scene
Boys would be castrated before puberty
Voices would remain high
Paid big bucks if they became opera stars
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High Class Entertainment?Mozart’s Don Juan!!
Italian= Don Giovanni
Sleazy man seduces dozens of women (old and young)
Girl’s dead father drags him to Hell as punishment
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Horn Helmet and Metal Bra!The Ring takes 16
hours Typically shown in
four nightsSeparate acts range
from 2 ½ hours to 6 ½ hours
“Ride of the Valkyries” most famous song
Original horn hat and metal bra opera
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Wagner’s The RingAn Opera in Four Parts!God’s live in Valhalla-
fight over a magic, powerful ring
Meanwhile…Man meets women- they fall in love- he turns out to be her brother- they marry!
Gods get involved- the immortal Brunhilde saves the girl, who is carrying her twin brother’s child….
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The Ring: cont’dGoddess Brunhilde is
punished by her God father and put into a long sleep
Siegfried (Sieglinde’ infant son), now grown, obtains his dead father’s magic sword
Find’s Brunhilde and wakes her with a kiss
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The Ring: finally endsBrunhilde is stolen
and forced to marry another man
Brunhilde rushes into his funeral pyre and throws the ring into the fire
The gods are destroyed- true love triumphs-audience dies of exhaustion
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A Story Retold!“Whosoever holds
the ring, by the ring they shall be enslaved”
Obvious connections to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
Parodied in “What’s Opera Doc?”
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Strauss’ SalomeBased on the Biblical
story of John the Baptist
Salome loved John but he denies her
King Herod lusts after her- tells her if she does the “Dance of the Seven Veils, she can have whatever she wants
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Salome: The disgusting endingShe demands her
reward from Herod- the head of John the Baptist
When the head is presented to her, she wildly makes out with it…
What is wrong with these people!