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Opera: New Orleans Opera's Don Giovanni have enjoyed operatic music for as long as I can remember, but had never attended a live opera until a few years ago. I found the experience less than wonderful; the effect of the lyrics being projected both took me out of the story and made me realize how trivial some of the things people were singing about really were. It was with some apprehension, then, that I agreed to accompany a group of friends to the New Orleans Opera's production of Don Giovanni on November 14 at the McAllister Auditorium. The first thing I noticed was the size of the theatre, which was much smaller than I was expecting. I was even more surprised by the opera itself and how much I enjoyed it.
First, there is a big difference in Italian and German opera. The only other live opera I've seen is La Boheme, and Mozart's Don Giovanni has a very different sound. There was an aggressiveness to the music and some of the singing that really appealed to me. What struck me the most, however, was the way the singers onstage related to each other and to the orchestra playing beneath them. There was an intensity in their focus, and the whole thing made more since as an exciting piece of drama than I had though it would. This production was set in the 1930s, and had a kind of gangster motif going on that really brought the music to life. I had made sure to read the story before hand so I wouldn't be distracted by the projected translation of the libretto, and I found that I didn't really need to know what the individual words meant -- the music and the acting carried the story just fine.
The conductor for the evening was Garret Keast, and the director was Matthew Lata. Both of these men did a superb job in crafting this new take on the opera. Though all of the singers/actors did a great job, my favorites were Julianna Di Giacomo as Donna Anna and Daniel Mobbs as Leporello; the intensity of the first and something indefinably spritely about the second really captured my attention.
He fought the Ottomans while in the Spanish Navy. On his way back to Spain, he was taken hostage and held in Algiers for five years. This experience contributed to Don Quixote. This work was his most popular. In 1606, he moved to Madrid, where he died in 1616. Ancient Greek Theater forms the foundations of modern theater. Greek theater is said to have evolved from religious rites around 1200
Walt Whitman, American Author & Poet About his Life: Walt Whitman, an American poet was born on May 31, 1819 and a son of Long Island and the second son of Walter Whitman, a house builder, and Louisa Van Velsor. It was at the age of twelve Whitman began to learn the printer's trade, and become acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then at the age of 17,
Charlie Parker Music: The music of United States changed significantly during the twentieth century, and each generation went on to develop its own music. These were all immensely popular, had strong rhythmic touch and were very different from the earlier forms which existed. These were used for dancing or just for the purpose of listening. When the twentieth century started it was the time for a variety called Ragtime. After the end
Ford's most accomplished novel, the Good Soldier, was published when he was forty-two. This famous work features a first person narrative and tells the story of two couples, the English Ashburnhams and the American Dowells. John Dowell is the narrator, through whom we learn of Florence and Edward Ashburnham's affair, which culminates in the suicide of the former, John's wife (Edward is the "good soldier" of the title.) it is
Dis-missal of the great French fairy tale writers from the palace of King Louis XIV help revolutionize the literary French fairy tales? French fairytales and literature are indeed a topic that is worth discussing. This is because the work compiled by the French writers, back in the 17th and 18th century is still part of the English as well as French literature. Nowadays, the term fairy tale is used by many