Carmen by Georges Bizet - Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Carmen by Georges Bizet - Report - Essay Example The costumes of the opera singers were typically in the character of a Spanish Seville setting. At one point we saw actual Toreador clothing. PERFORMANCE SETTING According to the Grove Music Online the opera was chosen after a French book. A distant cousin of Bizet was one of the two people who wrote the libretto. The librettist were Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy. (Grove 2011)They wrote for other French composers. Bizet chose the subject himself. He wanted to use melodrame as it had been used since 1850 in opera comique . (Grove 2011) An opera where there was dialogue accompanied by music was a technique that came from Italy in the opera buffa. TYPE(S) OF MUSIC . The opera was an opera comique taking after the opera buffa in the classical period. There were spoken parts. Carmen, the provocative bohemiane gypsy was a mezzo- soprano. Don Jose was a tenor which is higher than a bass. Before the opera began there was a short spoken introduction. I did not listen. I was too excited to hear the performance begin. Carmen is a gypsy who provokes men into loving her. A soldier, Don Josee, sees her kill another women and takes her to the police. He falls in love and lets her go. When he finds her again, she is already married to someone else. He becomes a bandit. He kills Carmen out of jealousy or madness because she won't come back to him. This soldier is Don Josee. Carmen, Don Josee, Micaella, and Escamillo are the principal characters. It was so different seeing the opera on stage than seeing it on a screen; the sounds of hearing the whole hall were amazing. Knowing that Bizet never had been to Spain makes one wonder how he could have written such Spanish sounding music. The Grove's said his opera changed the Spaniard's conception of their own music. The two parts of the opera chosen were. Carmen's Fate aria, and the Duet in Act IV before Don Josee kills Carmen. Carmen's Habanara "aria" is using all of Bizet's use of musical genres. 1. It starts with the use of voi ce as if were spoken drama with music being played under the voice. Please note the music is not accompanying the voice at certain points where it is at others. 2. The voice is used in dialogue with the chorus answering 3. The voice is used as an accompaniment to the chorus 4. The voice is used as a solo without any instrumental accompaniment. 5. The full orchestra with the full chorus begins the Fate "aria" The second part chosen is in Act IV of the opera. It is the final duet which ends the opera. The duet between Carmen an Don Josee is exquisitely beautiful. It is long for a duet of the Romantic Era. Bizet uses many techniques to change the emotions and the color of the aria. In the beginning there is very little instrumental intervention and the voices are calm. He is singing of how he loved her and she is saying she doesn't anymore. There is a build up of emotions when she says in the bottom of her soul she doesn't love him. The percussion and strings are playing and there is a change of attitude of Don Josee. He starts to beg and she sings in duet that she cannot go away with him. At one moment we hear the chorus and orchestra playing the Toreador theme. Don Josee knows Escamillo is coming and starts to sing more quickly. When he sings he is going to kill her, the key (tone ) changes to minor and the bass instruments play to show the gravity of the situation. He does kill her and the Toreador, Escamillo comes. This is a duet with

A tale of two lives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A tale of two lives - Essay Example As a result, the two teenage boys are now serving a sentence in juvenile jails (Pioppi 3). Frank court sentence is more rigid unlike Carlos. Frank is more violent and his criminal activities have landed him in jail thrice for alleged offences including drug peddling and murder. He is serving a sentence at the Long Lane School in Middletown. The juvenile prison is regarded as the home to some of the toughest teen criminals such as Frank. At this prison, the freedom of juveniles is curtailed and when they are allowed to go out, it must be under a guard watch (Pioppi 4). Unlike Frank, Carlos detention school is friendlier than Long Lane and it is managed by a private agency. Detainees at this prison are also privileged to have several amenities unlike in Long Lane. There are tennis courts and a swimming pool where the teens can unwind. According to the author, the Connecticut Junior Republic in Litchfield is more of a boarding school rather than a juvenile center for young criminals. In my view, Carlos prison enjoys more freedom than in Long Lane School, where juveniles are always handcuffed and their movements monitored. Carlos is never handcuffed and can move around the school without being guarded (Pioppi 5). Even though Frank is in a more secure facility, he manages to escape and still commit other serious crimes. His first crime was selling drugs at the city of New Haven. He was later released and was sentenced against for murder charges. He escaped again several time and was involved in a shooting incident. This shows his determination to commit more crimes without getting worried about spending his entire life in prison. His tone is rough and unapologetic and it shows that prison life has not rehabilitated him. As the author notes, the prison authorities are contemplating sending him to prison for good (Pioppi 4). Carlos is friendlier and polite as compared to Frank. The author describes him as a changed person who does not correspond to