Opera Research Paper
Evan Hochberg
April 21, 2014
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg, part of what is now modern day Austria (BBC, 2014). The son of a Musician, Leopold, Mozart was born into a musical upbringing. He quickly became very proficient at the harpsichord, and was even composing his own works at the ripe young age of 5 years old. Mozart gained important development on an early childhood trip through Europe, where he and his family met and played for famous musicians of the time. He was strongly influence by his interactions with Johann Christian Bach, the song of the much more famous Johann Sebastian Bach. Mozart also encountered opera throughout his journeys through Europe.
After briefly living in Germany and France, Mozart returned to his home country of Austria in 1778 following the death of his mother. Mozart was incredibly productive back in Austria, despite personal challenges. He composed 41 symphonies, many of which remain the most popular works of musical in history. He also composed 22 operas, one of the most famous of which is The Marriage of Figaro.
In the late 1700’s, Mozart was composing in Vienna (Schwarm, 2013). Hoping for a grand success, Mozart petitioned to be allowed to write an opera based off an earlier, controversial play by Beaumarchais, but this time in a toned-down fashion. He was given permission, and set out to write The Marriage of Figaro.
Mozart collaborated with Lorenzo Da Ponte for the libretto of The Marriage of Figaro, as well as two other of Mozart’s operas, Don Giovanni, and Cosi Fan Tutte (Montagne, 2006). The libretto was written in the opera buffa style, which was comedic. Mozart and Da Ponte were neighbors in Vienna during their composition of The Marriage of...
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...ening which soon turns ethereal and mystical (Glass, 2014). This heavenly portion ends rapidly with a loud trumpet and timpani portion which becomes loud and hectic. While the overture is not repeated throughout the opera, it is viewed as some of Mozart’s finest work not only of the opera, but also of his career.
The opera premiered in Vienna on May 1, 1786 (History, 2014). At this time, Mozart was already well known and had created a successful career for himself. The Marriage of Figaro opened to popular acclaim, but anger from the aristocratic classes. The first few performances were so well liked that the number of encores had to be limited by the emperor. This success led Mozart and Da Ponte to collaborate on their next two projects together. While toned down from the original play, the masses were pleased with the comedic nature of The Marriage of Figaro.
A new and original comic Opera by Messrs. W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, entitled the "Pirates of Penzance, or Love and Duty. It is amazing how two dramatic writers have mastered the ability to amuse the public in such an original manner. This opera had its premiere on December 31, 1879, at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York with Arthur Sullivan conducting. It opened on April 3, 1880, at the Opera Comique in London and ran for 363 performances.
On January 27th, 1756, at 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria, a Jupiter among mere men and composers was born. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born the son of Anna Maria (1720-1778) and Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), a composer, teacher, and the fourth violinist for Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Already learning to play the keyboard at a mere age of three years old, Mozart would learn by sight as he watched his seven year old sister took lessons from her music teacher. As Mozart got older and started to develop as a player and composer, his traveled with his father around Europe performing as a child ...
Gene Brucker’s Giovanni and Lusanna is a story introducing two main characters, Lusanna and Giovanni, in Florence during the Renaissance. The story is a confrontation between the two and their marital status against the law. The story starts off with both Giovanni and Lusanna’s relationship. Both of the two seem to not agree with the fact that they are married, so both of them tell their side of the story to the court. While Giovanni believes he has not partaken in any such actions and refuses to make it a public marriage, Lusanna believes otherwise. Lusanna ended up winning the case, but
Mozart was born to Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart. Mozart’s father, Leopold, was a composer, violinist, and assistant concert master in the Salzburg court. Due to the fact that his father was deeply involved in music, Mozart was influenced at very young age. Mozart had begun learning how to play the piano as early as the age of three. Under his father’s advisement, Mozart and his sister,
“My happiness is in your hands. ”1 This is the Countess’ plea as Susanna enters the Count’s study. She is about to accept the Count’s offer to meet after her wedding at her mistress’s request. This riveting scene in “The Marriage of Figaro” premiered on the stage of the Burgtheater in Vienna on May 1st, 1986.2 With the music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, the Italian opera was an adaption of Pierre- Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’ play “The Follies of a Day or, The Marriage of Figaro”. The play finally made it to the stage on April 27th, 1984, of the Comedie-Française after being banned by King Joseph II and being revised by a second censor board.3 “The Marriage of Figaro” takes place on the wedding day of the Count’s valet, Figaro, and the Countess’s personal maid, Susanna.
One of the most interesting challenges in operatic composition , is composing for all the specific characters. A composer has to distinguish between characters through his music. Jan can’t sound like Fran , and Dan can’t sound like Stan. Each character must have his or her own traits. Mozart’s opera , Don Giovanni , provides us with many different characters to compare and contrast. One scene in particular lends itself to the comparison of Don Giovanni , Leporello , and The Commendator. Scene fifteen of Act two, places all three characters in close interaction with each other , making it easy to compare and find out how Mozart and his Librettist Lorenzo da Ponte brought them all to life.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as he is generally known, was baptized in a Salzburg Cathedral on the day after his birth as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. The first and last given names come from his godfather Joannes Theophilus Pergmayr, although Mozart preferred the Latin form of this last name, Amadeus, more often Amadé, or the Italiano Amadeo, and occasionally the Deutsch Gottlieb. Whatever the case may be, he rarely - if ever - used Theophilus in his signature. The name Chrysostomus originates from St. John Chrysostom, whose feast falls on the 27th of January. The name Wolfgang was given to him in honor of his maternal grandfather, Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was probably the greatest genius in Western musical history. He was born in Salzberg, Austria on January 27, 1756. The son of Leopold Mozart and his wife Anna Maria Pertl. Leopold was a successful composer and violinist and assistant concertmaster at the Salzberg court.
Wolfgang started learning music at a very early age from his dad Leopold, who was a violin player. At the age of six he began composing and by eight he had written symphonies. His father toured Mozart and his sister around for the entertainment of nobles across Europe. From 1963 to 1973 Mozart went on tour with his father and family. He performed both publicly and privately for nobles of the time and often was asked to write music for weddings and other special occasions. While his father was often inflexible and hard to deal with, the tours that he went on were mostly improvised. “In 1777 Wolfgang went on a tour with his mother to Munich, Mannheim, and Paris. It was in Paris that his mother died suddenly in July, 1778. With no prospects of a job, Mozart dejectedly returned to Salzburg in 1779 and became court organist to the Archbishop.”(Sherrane, 1.2)
Opera is a unique genre of spoken word and song accompanied by music. The music takes one through ascending and descending ranges of emotions. Mozart's Don Giovanni is a perfect example of how this genre emits a wide variety of feelings and attitudes. This "dark comedy seems to convey Mozart's feeling that events have both comical and serious dimensions…" (Kerman, 205). The opera, as a whole, is neither exclusively comedic nor entirely tragic.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the son of Anna Maria Pertl and pro musician Leopold Mozart, who played violin and worked for the archbishop of Salzburg. Mozart and his sister, Maria Anna, were the only two of their parents’ seven children to survive. Maria Anna was also highly talented. With their father’s guidance, they were both introduced
Mozart’s Requiem is “one of the most performed and studied pieces of music in history” (Stango, n.d.). The story behind the start of this piece begins with Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned a requiem mass for his wife Anna (who had passed away). Throughout his work on this piece, Mozart began to get so emotionally involved with the piece that he believed that he was writing a death mass for himself. Mozart died December 5, 1791, with only half of the Requiem finished (through Lacrimosa). Franz Xaver Süssmayr finished the Requiem based on Mozart’s specifications from notes and what he had already written. The completed work is dated 1792 by Süssmayr and was performed for the first time on January 2, 1793. Mozart’s intent for this mass was specifically for church ceremony, but recently, the Requiem has been used and performed at concerts to showcase Mozart’s musical brilliance (Stango, n.d.).
He was a great young composer that transformed into a genius that was able to write music in the short periods of time he had during the day and was able to rewrite the musical rules. After being very successful in his early years, Mozart grew little older and started looking at things in a bigger picture. He tried to fit in on many different things including languages of others. The “Magic Flute” that was written at the end of his short life is known as the ultimate expression of Mozart’s ambition to connect with the human life and the human emotion through music as well as theater. At 25 years old, Mozart is no longer a prodigy but has not proved to be an amateur composer. In Provincial Salzburg is where Mozart is still living with his father and sister. Mozart is going to Munich because they have commissioned him to write an Italian opera in a serious style. Mozart’s father said he gave Wolfgang the advice to never neglect the popular style for the unmusical public as the musical ones. Leopold agreed to be Mozart’s middle man between the poets but he didn’t know that this would be his last detailed involvement in one of Mozart’s projects. Mozart’s father said they worked every day on the poems but Mozart was determined about something totally different than his father. He had problems with everything his father done. Whether it was too long or not dramatic enough, it would never suit his needs. His
Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. His father was Leopold Mozart, a composer and a popular violinist. Mozart received his early musical training from his father. At the early age of 3 Mozart showed signs of being a musical genius. Then, at the age of five Mozart started composing. Beginning in 1762 Mozart’s father took young Mozart and his older sister, Maria Anna, on tours in Europe where they played the piano, harpsichord, violin, and organ, together and separately. Mozart learned to play the piano, harpsichord, and violin from his father. He gave public concerts and played at numerous courts and received several commissions.
Mozart’s use of melodic contour and repetitive rhythmic motives make this piece feel very connected throughout. He begins with a two eighth note followed by two quarter note pattern. This pattern is repeated twice more until finally at measure four a new melodic and rhythmic motive is introduced. At measure four a retardation occurs using a half note to delay the resolution to the quarter note, drawing out the resolution as much as possible to create a sense of relief upon arrival. This pattern of three measures of motive “A” followed by...