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Notes on video lecture:
Le nozze di Figaro: The Music Conveys the Drama
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
minds, tangible, Salieri, 1786, dramatists, halls, material, songful, terse, ahead, rapturous, dramatic, unaltered, Rome, instruments, singers, Susanna, preoccupied, drama, same, Ponte, music, wedding
when we think of Italian opera, we often think of         , Venice, Florence, Milan
yet in the late 18th century, much Italian opera occurred in Vienna
Mozart
Antonio               
Martín y Soler
few works that were created in the late 18th century had come to us                   
usually not played on the kinds of                        Mozart wrote for
               are trained differently
the            in which they were originally performed have mostly disappeared
but the notes of Le nozze di Figaro have for the most part remained the         
         composed Le nozze di Figaro
Lorenzo Da           
gave him an Italian libretto in order to create an Italian opera
has stood the test of time
the music, independent of the words, can tell us much about the lives, hearts, and            of the characters who are represented in the opera
opera represents the achievement of intense                  expression by essentially musical means
if we listen with intent to the music and the music alone, we can understand much of the drama on stage and in the lives of the characters on that stage
the music conveys the           
you don't always need to know the words that are being sung, you don't even need to see the work being performed on a stage
if you learn to develop your ear to hear the            is doing, you will pick up and understand much of the drama composed by the best musical                     
opening duet
at one point counting numbers
strange words to set to music
Figaro is measuring out the room that he and                will share together once they get married
he is fairly                       
at first he doesn't seem to hear Susanne at all
who is more focused on the nature of their                and marriage
the music changes when Susanne sings
more lyrical
more song-like
whereas the music when Figaro speaks represents his more            expressions of distance
two people are singing
but they are not singing together
they aren't singing about the same thing
Figaro:                  matters
Susanne: less                  issues
Figaro's first not keep being raised higher and higher
keeps expanding Figaro's range
a musical portrayal from 5 to 43
strings keep playing the same not over and over
the fixed point from where the measurements expand
Susanne singing
more               
more variety in rhythm and volume
expresses a wide range of possibilities
has more thoughts and feelings than Figaro has expressed so far
first 20 second
Figaro measuring out the room
next 10 second
Susanne
then a mix
Figaro even more consumed with his measurements
Susanne continues in                    thought of their life ahead
oblivious to Figaro and his actions
Figaro starts to sing the song that Susanne's music
never goes back to measuring
allows them to sing in harmony with each other
abandons measuring out the room in order to join Susanne in rhapsodizing about their life together
by the end they are singing Susanne's music, not Figaro's
gives us a hint that Susanne might be a step            of Figaro throughout the opera

People:

######################### (1754-1806)
Spanish composer of opera and ballet in his day compared favorably with his contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a composer of opera buffa
  • born in Valencia and studied music in Bologna under Giovanni Battista Martini
  • he has been called the Valencian Mozart
  • in 1777, he travelled to Naples, where he composed for the Teatro di San Carlo
  • in 1785 he moved to Vienna, where he enjoyed great success with three operas composed to texts by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who was simultaneously collaborating with Mozart and Antonio Salieri
  • the three comedies were Una cosa rara (1786), Il burbero di buon cuore (1786), and L'arbore di Diana (1787)
  • in 1788, Soler was invited to the Russian court at St. Petersburg, where he wrote three Russian language operas: The Unfortunate Hero Kosmetovich (1789), Melomania (1790), and Fedul and his Children (1791)
  • moving to London for the 1795, including La capricciosa corretta (the libretto again by Lorenzo Da Ponte and partly adapted from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew)
Le nozze di Figaro: The Music Conveys the Drama