B4, BROADWAY ("Hair")

     This week saw a a completed unexpected an unguided look at Broadway. After a quick visit to angel-stagedoor.blogspot.com, I realized I wouldn't be learning much about Broadway without either learning Spanish, or seeking another source. As my assignment was to comment on my favorite shows, I felt that an outside source may be of more benefit than finding a translator. While scrolling down the page on blogspot, I saw a heading, that seemed somewhat recognizable and warranted further exploration.

     "The Sixties (Let the Sunshine In)." From what little I could gather from the speckled in bits of English, this was an article about "Hair". From my limited scope, I often forget that American Productions are often translated and performed around the world. "Si anadimos a ello su exitoso estreno en Londres y la realizacion de la pelicula de Milos Forman en 1979 -y todas las representaciones que se han sucedido en multiples lugares del planeta- Podemos afirmar que Hair, mas que un fenomeno teatral o musical, fue un fenomeno social estrechamente unido al momento en que se creo y a lo que estaba ocurriendo en el mundo en aquellos anos." While I have a limited understanding of Spanish (owing to 2 years of Spanish Class and growing up in Los Angeles), I believe this excerpt from the blogspot page is saying that "Hair" was translated into multiple languages and performed around the planet.

     Music has often been described as the universal language. Of course, many of the musical terms that musicians respond to from sheet music come from the Italian language. Words such as "Andante", "Vivace", "Fortissimo", and "Accelerando". Although, the text for a singer still holds the same communicative barriers inherent in understanding foreign language, the emotions of the rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic content are quite perceivable and need no further translation or explanation. This becomes a valuable resource when conveying a story line that communicates a specific culture. The study of cultures has long since recognized components of music, food, art, religion, clothing, and such as defining features. Perhaps translating the text and keeping the musical context of the story, allows productions such as "Hair" to transcend barriers and allow people of other cultures a more authentic look at the 1960's hippie counter-culture movement.

     According to broadwaymusicalhome.com, "Hair" is "the first rock musical to hit the Great White Way - the product of hippie counter-culture and the sexual revolution of the 1960s". Opening night for the Broadway Premiere was on April 29th, 1968. It wasn't until over 10 years later that the production was translated and performed around the world in different languages. Given this type of timeframe, I imagine audiences feeling as though they had opened some sort of time capsule. Perhaps this kind of glimpse into an American counter-culture gave them insight into the roots of the 1970s America they would have been reading about in the newspaper and watching on television.

     The ability for music to transcend cultural and language barriers is nothing less than astounding. The ability to translate text, and bring productions to other cultures around the world is no small thing either. I personally find it very cool that we can experience art and music from people and from a time that we have to other connection to. It's a way of connecting people where there would otherwise be no connection. Music is a gift, and we are fortunate to experience and share it with our fellow man.


Works Cited:

angel-stagedoor.blogspot.com/
www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/hair.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ0R3-JFpmU

Campbell_S1 (L'Orfeo)

Joshua J. Campbell

Professor Blanka Roundtree

FMX 211

13 February 2019

 “L’Orfeo” as an Introduction to Opera

Opera has been around for a little over four hundred years, with its roots stemming from Italy in the beginning of the 1600’s. As a musician and later the “Maestro Della Musica” at Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga’s court at Mantua, Cluadio Monteverdi was immersed in a rich musical environment where his creative work could be nourished and grow into a new form that we know today as Opera. Looking back at the early work that Monteverdi created, we can clearly see the recognizable features that are still inherent in today’s accepted conventions for operatic performance. “While Jacopo Peri’s Dafne is generally recognized as the first work in the opera genre, and the earliest surviving opera is Peri’s Euridice, L’Orfeo is the earliest that is still regularly performed.” (4)  As my journey into the world of opera is at a beginning, I chose to start by researching Monteverdi’s Orfeo.

 “Through ability and hard work Monteverdi rose to become [Duke Vincenzo] Gonzaga’s maestro della musica (master of music) in 1601.” (2)  He soon began work on L’Orfeo which was first performed on “24 February 1607, as evidenced by two letters, both dated 23 February [1607]”. (2)  His work in L’Orfeo was “…the first attempt to apply the full resources of the art of music, as then evolved, to the nascent genre of opera.” Specifically, he employed polyphony in a way that was more skillfully used and which was rare in any case, owing to the influence of the Church at the time. Going back several decades before this, the Camerata (a group of aristocratic intellectuals from Italy) had “rebelled against the extremes of contrapuntal music which caused the sense of the poetry to be lost in the interwoven harmonies.”

In the 1581 treatise, “Dialogo della musica antica e della moderna” written by Vincenso Galilei, he stated that the “elaborate polyphonic imitative style of the Renaissance can neither render words clarly nor express with sufficient subtlety or force the emotions of the text.” (3)  This treatise set up basic principles that stated, “…the text must be clearly understood”, “the words must be sung with correct and natural declamation”, and “the melody must not depict mere graphic details in the txt but must interpret the feeling of the whole passage…” (3)  Responses to the premiere of L’Orfeo pay particular mention to Montevedi’s success at capturing the emotion demanded by the Camerata. “The Mantuan court theologian and poet, Cherubino Ferrari wrote that: “Both poet and musician have depicted the inclinations of the heart so skilfully that it could not have been done better … The music, observing due propriety, serves the poetry so well that nothing more beautiful is to be heard anywhere”. (2)

While we can only imagine what it must have been like to be at the Court in Mantua for the premiere of “L’Orfeo”, technology has made it possible for us to experience Monteverdi’s masterpiece with the convenience of an internet connection and a laptop, smart tv, or even an iPhone. My original plan was to purchase a DVD of a 2008 performance, which changed to internet streaming due to slow guaranteed shipping times from amazon.com. The video performance I choose to watch was recorded in 1978 at the Zurich Opera House under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The convenience of the internet in the palm of our hands makes it easy to take technology for granted. The technology that is easy to see include the backdrops that are brought in and out to depict “the fields of Thrace (Acts 1, 2 and 5) and the Underworld (Acts 3 and 4)”. (2) It’s a little easier to think about the lights that make it possible for us to see the performers, or the stand lights that allow the musicians to see their sheet music. It’s quite a bit less obvious to think about the video camera’s, recording and editing equipment, and the digital conversion process that enabled the 1978 performance to be uploaded to the internet. Another very small yet significant technology that I’m particularly drawn to is the use of the Antiphonal Brass during the Fanfare at the beginning of the production. The use of directional sound, especially in an offstage antiphonal setting, creates a stunning performance effect that still awes audiences today.

The Opera World seems to have been on the forward edge when it comes to trends in using new technology. New Opera’s have included the use of moving video screens, robots, and sensors that monitor the performers vital statistics and use them to manipulate visual effects. What will the future of opera hold? I think the answer is only limited to the imaginations of the creative minds that will continue to fuel this art form. If I were a 21^st Century Producer, I might be convinced to create a video game to immerse a broader (and more youthful) audience in the story of L’Orfeo.

The video game world has been no stranger to epic adventures spanning over 3 decades with franchises like Final Fantasy that released the original game in December, 1987 to the most current release of “Final Fantasy XV” which was released in November, 2016. The advancements in game console technology have also supported full orchestral soundtrack, and realistic video sequences for well over a decade. The technology is undoubtably there to support a 1^st person Role Playing Game (RPG) that follows the story of L’Orfeo. If I were producing this game, I would set the player up to be L’Orfeo, and follow his epic adventure from the fields of Thrace with the nymphs and shepherds starting in Act I to the gates of Hades and the Underworld in Act 3 and back, all the way through his ascent to the Heaven’s with his father, Appolo in Act 5. Perhaps a “Guitar Hero” type sequence might work well as our hero soothes Caronte to sleep before steeling the ferryman’s boat to cross into the Underworld. Other parts of the story would be best served as a “Cut Scene” as opposed to actual game play, such as showing L’Orfeo’s bride being bitten on the foot by a poisonous snake, or when L’Orfeo looks back at Euridice as they attempt to leave Hades, thereby breaking the agreement with Plutone and sealing Euridice’s fate.

Works Cited

 Monteverdi, C. “L’Orfeo”, 1607; Performance by Das Monteverdi-Ensemble des Opernhauses Zurich, 1978. Posted on YouTube 9 AUG 2013,  www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcRFFmgVGlc. Accessed 10 February 2019.

“Monteverdi: L’Orfeo”, courses.lumenlearning.com/musicapp_historical/chapter/1-6-1-lorfeo-monteverdi/, Accessed 10 February 2019

Kennedy, H.B. “A Comparative Study of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and L’Incoronazione di Poppea”, 1 January 1969, https://thekeep.eiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1514&context=theses, Accessed 11 February 2019

Kheyer, J.M. “L’Orfeo”, quizlet.com/169910481/lorfeo-flash-cards/, Accessed 13 February 2019

“ARIA” (“Madame Butterfly” in 11 minutes) (Blog 3)

“ARIA” (“Madame Butterfly” in 11 minutes) This past week the “Art & Technology” class at the University of Tampa focused it’s lens on the study of Opera. Opera has a rich history stemming from Italy around 1600 at the beginning of the Baroque Period. It’s traditions and innovations in technology have been defining characteristics of the art form. Using technologies that didn’t exist just a hundred years ago, Opera has found new ways to be expressed and delivered to audiences around the world. Through the study of Opera’s history, we gain better understanding of the context in which it developed and changed, as well as the direction it will move in the future. “Madame Butterfly” is an opera by Italian compser Giacomo Puccini. According to Britannica.com, Puccini was introduced to the story in 1900 while attending a play in London written by David Belasco (American theatrical producer and playwright). The story for this 0ne-act play was “…derived from a short story of the same name, by American author John Luther Long, of a Japanese girl’s ill-fated love for an American sailor”. Puccini acquired the operatic rights with the help of his publisher, Giulio Ricordi. The first performance of the opera, which included only 2 acts, and was not well received. Puccini split the second act into two along with other extensive revisions before reintroducing the opera in 1904. By 1906, 2 more revisions had been made, bringing the metamorphosis of the opera to its “definitive form”. Nearly 100 years after Puccini transformed “Madame Butterfly” into an opera, soviet born Pjotr Sapegin took her to the screen. His award winning 2001 animated short tells the story of Butterfly and Pinkerton in just 11 minutes. Sapegin displays masterfully crafted stop motion with an incredibly artistic flair. The animations reveal a sense of movement and humanity on a level above anything I’ve previously seen. “Aria” masterfully tells the story of a native Japanese girl and the American Sailor that she has fallen in love with. It’s also a story of loss and deep sadness, ending with the suicide of the main character. The music of Puccini also plays an important role in the story as well as the emotional impact it evokes. “Aria” is peppered with many clever representations and story telling devices.In Sapegin’s portrayal, music is played by a grampophone, which is given to Madame Butterfly by Pinkerton before he leaves on his ship. The tie in from the baby’s scream to the high sustained singing of the Soprano was also quite clever. Several other clever tools are used to tell the story in a very artistic and emotionally impactful way. Soon after Pinkerton leaves, Butterfly finds that she is pregnant. “Aria” uses a goldfish in a fishbowl to portray the young developing baby in it’s mother’s womb. As the glass on the fishbowl breaks, so doe’s Butterflies water, which is spilt on the shore and returns to the ocean. While “Aria” isn’t capable of telling the entire story of “Madame Butterfly”, I believe it captures the essence and emotion of the story that Puccini intended. Pjotr Sapegin’s work displays some very strong visualization of a serious nature, such as child birth and suicide, made possible by the use of technology. Stop motion, wire frame dolls, creative lighting and camera work, and masterful editing and sound design contributed to the overall impact of this work. A quick search on IMDb reveals that Sapegin has released at least 10 other works. I’m definitely looking forward to checking out more of his work! Sources: https://www.nfb.ca/film/aria_en/ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Madama-Butterfly https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0764535/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302274/?ref_=nm_knf_t3