Opera Music
Listening to an opera is one of the most interesting classical music performances you could see live. This 90 minute opera I seen was played on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 and performed at 8 p. m. The name play was Wozzeck by Alben Burg and performed by the Philharmonic Ocrhestra. At the opera the person who was suppose to be the doctor was ill so Kevin Beurdette took Tijil Faveyls place. The people that attended the concert varied, some people were older and other people were young. The type of class of people that showed up to this concert was not specifically seen because most of the people that did show where dressed formal-casual.
This concert had no special occasion to it but besides the fact that it was a mandatory class meeting at the Disney Concert Hall. The opera had a full orchestra. During this opera performance none of the actors had costumes on nor was the stage set up for an acting show. The scenes performed were all up to the actors; they memorized the play and then improvised their acting on set. The Doctor acted by Burdette had to really improvise his part. Every time he came out in a scene he carried the script with him out on stage.
This opera was in German and there were surr-titles instead of subtitles. The audience laughed during the opera and they were to have a sense of relationship with play. Since it was a play the audience only applauded when the opera was over. The play Wozzeck was a play that not finished by Georg Buchner and Alban Berg finished his play. This play is set back in World War I. It is a story about soldier “Wozzeck” who is in love with a prostitute and she is the mother of his son. Wozzeck is not able to meet her needs financially, so he takes part in the doctor’s experiment.
The experiments start to make him hallucinate and hear thing. On the mean while his wife is having an affair with a drum major and plans to be with him. Wozzeck becomes suspicious of her and then doctor and captain tempt Wozzeck to do something about. He then starts to have crazy visions of her and the drummer. So he sets forth on killing her and then he himself drowning because he wants to hide the knife far into the water so no one could find it. This tragic play is composed by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Disney Concert Hall. It is a 3 part play that is roughly 90 minutes long.
Salonen has been with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director from 1992 until 2009. The play has an orchestra of fifty people and off set orchestra which was the UC Berkley chamber chorus that played outside in order to set the mood of an illusion. The characters Marie and Wozzeck had solo’s, during the play each character sang in tune of the music the texture of this play is homophonic and polyphonic. Besides about the fact that two main characters had solo’s there was a group of children that came out to sing. ZacharyMimis the child of Marie had a small solo at the end of the play.
The tempo in Wozzeck fluctuated as some scenes where nerve racking or some were distressing. During the play dynamic contrast was played in tune with the tempo. All abruptly the 2 bassoons would play really fast and loud and other times play really slow. The music in the play was secular and not scared music. The opera Wozzeck was a great performance; I did not go in with high hopes only because what my view of an opera was not for it. Whenever I think of an opera I think of some fat ladies wearing a Viking helmet and looking like fighters.
This opera was a little different because each actor had a distinctive personality that was vividly seen. The captain was a crazy character, his acting placed him as one of my favorites. His interacting with Wozzeck because he would make fun of Wozzeck for being a crazy loon and poor. One thing that I noticed about the music was that sometimes when a character would sing they would not be in tune with music but then end it in tune. The music had intensive moments that surprised me with excitement.
The play was also funny because of the word choice used in order to make fun of a character. Coming to this opera was a new experience I enjoyed the performance I could not sit still because I was getting tired of sitting. The seat that I sat in was one of the best seats that I have had there. The sound quality that was produced was great and you could see all of what the characters where doing. Although it was a bit distracting to be looking up at the surr-scripts it was an experience I will not forget. I am definitely glad I had the chance to see an opera like this.
