Concert Review on a College´s Opera Performance

Eastern Washington University Department of Music presented a program of Opera works by Giacomo Puccini, Aron Copland, W.A. Mozart, John Dowland, Franz Shubert, Maurice Ravel, and Robert Schumann on Friday, March 7, 6:30 p.m., in the Music Building, Recital Hall. These Opera works were sung by Senior Recitalist, Alexandra Rannow.
The concert started off with Mi chiamano Mimi by Giacomo Puccini that was sung extraordinarily well by Alexandra Rannow who was accompanied by a pianist. Mi chiamano Mimi is in the first of four acts of Puccini’s La Boheme. This piece is meant to be sung with emotion and is supposed to make the listener feel what Mimi is trying to say and how she feels about it. Although the performance was amazing, the singer could have put some more emotion into her singing like moving her arms around a bit.
Alexandra Rannow sounds like she is a soprano which would make sense since this song has some high C’s and requires the singer to sing at a higher pitch. A contralto would have trouble hitting these high notes. This piece had sections where is was sung in legato which was amazing since Alexandra definitely sung it smoothly and it had a few parts were it was in Staccato which was also nicely done. The dynamics were accurately sung compared to professional recordings of this piece. The transitions from piano to forte were phenomenal because Alexandra didn’t rush through the transitions but she rather evened it out. The same goes for the crescendos and decrescendos. The long crescendos and decrescendos were smooth and same for the short ones. Some people have the tendency to rush through them and not sing them evenly. The closest description to Alexandra’s transition from decrescendo to crescendo was like watching t...

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...r choice of lyrics.
This piece was definitely tonal. The listener has a sense of direction throughout the whole piece. The harmony was consonant because the chords were stable and there was very little tension. The mood throughout the piece was calm and loving. It had a bit of a slow tempo which is why the mood felt like it was calm and loving. The dynamics were from low to high. The pitch changes quickly in some parts while in others it stays around the same. Since the dynamics were tonal, there was no parts in it that will catch the listener completely off guard.
In conclusion, the most enjoyable part of the opera concert was Alexandra’s beautiful angelic voice. She made it seem like singing those pieces was easy. She sounded like a professional with the pronunciation of the Italian and German words, and the articulation of the notes was absolutely incredible.