Today in Seminar we examined and analyzed various different operas, opera voices, composers, and opera performers.  I was intrigued to see the different opera scenes performed, and without a doubt, the three performances we saw of Luciano Pavarotti were incredible.  Opera is a fascinating and beautiful art form and I’m looking forward to attending my first opera on Wednesday.

We learned about each of the different types of opera voices today, for both men and women. For each type of voice, Professor Kahan showed a scene from an opera, where the performer was singing in that type of voice.  I’m glad she did this, because not only were we able to physically hear what we were being taught, but it allowed us to see different types of arias and recitativos being performed in several operas.  For me, these were the best parts of the class.  For the lowest opera voice a man can perform, the bass, we were shown a clip from Don Giovanni, composed by Mozart.  The bass voice in the scene was the voice of the servant of Don Giovanni, who is showing Giovanni’s current “girlfriend” the book of every woman Giovanni has ever seduced, in the various countries he has visited.  It is a comical sort of scene, and the bass voice fits nicely with this comical tone.

The other male voices are a baritone and a tenor.  For these voices, we were shown a clip from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, composed by Rossini, Othello composed by Verdi, and Nessun Dorma from the opera Turnadot, the play we are going to see as a class.  Nessun Dorma is a famous aria from the opera Turandot, and has been performed various times by the tenor, Luciano Pavarotti.  Professor Kahan showed us three different performances of this piece by Pavarotti, and I was fascinated.  He was able to perform this piece at age 45, age 63, and age 71, and he sounded flawless all three times.  Of course, there were slight differences as he aged and gained musical maturity, but all three times, he was powerful and emotional and was able to nicely present the intensity of this piece of music.  It was very interesting to watch.

Then came my absolute favorite part of today’s class.  We first identified the several types of female opera voices, and then we saw a clip from Carmen in order to hear a female mezzo-soprano.  I have seen the movie Carmen and I love the music, the dancing, and of course, the singing.  The actress playing Carmen has a beautiful voice.  Everybody knows the tune of the opening scene of Carmen and for me, that makes it even more enjoyable to watch.

I learned much more about the opera than I had ever known in today’s class.  For example, I did not know that librettists had such a difficult job creating a libretto for an opera, and how much work goes into it.  They have to think about which words to use, what music to set it to, and still be able to get the plot of the story across to the audience. I also was unaware that women always die in an opera.  It’s true, but just something I had never noticed. Something else I noticed during today’s lesson is that many modern tunes and music used in films, shows, etc. comes from the music of operas.  For example, the music used in Carmen and the music used in Il Barbiere di Siviglia are both tunes that everyone knows because of something else they’ve seen or heard.  It seems that opera music is universal and applicable to many situations, even commercials we see on TV.

I look forward to attending my first real opera and continuing to learn about the different musical styles of the art world.