MUAR 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Opera Buffa, Opera Seria, La Bohème
Document Summary
Similar to our movies: the arias and recitatvies are hard to tell about, opera seria (italian) & grand opera (french) = serious opera. Good example of exoticism: written by an italian composer that tries to portray things from japan. This is done using percussion and pentatonic scales (5 note scales that are different from major and minor, so it sounds different to us) Exoticism is always about the audience, not about the people being depicted (which is often derogatory) She fantasizes about her husband returning, but it doesn"t play out how she imagines. He marries someone else and she kills herself: ex: la boheme with a certain character and might be reinterpreted later. Reminiscence motive: melodies from earlier in the opera that might be associated. Why they had larger people sing, since they need a strong voice to compete with the orchestra: the ring cycle: one huge story in four works put together.