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Preview – The Marriage of Figaro at the Frederick Loewe Theater (04/05)

Piece:

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro, adapted by Tony Britten

Venue: Frederick Loewe Theater, New York, NY

Performers: NYU Steinhardt, Music and Performing Arts. Cast: Eric Alexieff, Jacob Carll, Will Evans, Lisa Figel, Amanda Hoffman, Kevin Miller, Asha Nelson-Williams, Catie Shelley, Nick Volkert

Le nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro) was the first of Mozart’s three major and famous opera collaborations with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. It was translated from the French play, La folle journée ou le Mariage de Figaro, by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, to Italian. Mozart’s patron, the Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II, had many failed attempts with operas in German, due to a lack of good poets and musicians willing to write for it since Italian opera at the time was “the most popular and cosmopolitan of contemporary genres” (Steptoe 1). Also, opera buffa was quickly rising in popularity at the time, due to the Enlightenment.  The original opera took surprisingly a long time to produce (Steptoe 2). Maybe it was because this would be Mozart’s first opera buffa after arriving in Vienna from Salzberg and his first commission from the Emperor, and he realized he needed to make a great first impression, and make a name for himself.

Mozart composed the opera knowing the “importance of writing with the capabilities of particular singers in mind and with an eye and ear for stage effect and the dramatic and expressive possibilities of tonality and of instrumental writing” (Carter 4). Therefore, he tweaked the music to suit different vocalists. However, this adaptation by English composer, Tony Britten, is in English. I’m definitely interested to see how the English libretto will sound for a piece composed for an Italian libretto. Mozart adapted the play to fit the popular operatic style at the time of having only two acts. However, de Potnte and Mozart did it in unusual way, he decided to cut out some events and modify others, and turned the five act play into a four act opera. Then, they put the major finales at the end of Acts II and IV, so it essentially became two ‘two act’ operas (Carter 25). Being a living composer, there were not any books written about Tony Britten, and I could not find any recordings of this adaption. However, after reading reviews of this adaption online, I read that he has modernized the story, and made it more dramatic and theatrical, with more acting. Therefore, I wonder what changes Mr. Britten has made to the composition, if he has decided to modify or cut out certain events, and more importantly, if he changed any delivery methods like from aria to recitative.

Sources: Steptoe, Andrew. The Mozart-Da Ponte Operas. The Cultural and Musical Background to Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan tutte. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. Print.

Carter, Tim. W.A. Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Print.

Adele – “Someone Like You”

 

Following the professor’s example, I picked a chart topper as well. “Someone Like You” is in duple meter, with four beats per measure. The tempo is moderate to slow. This song only consists of a piano, a lead voice (Adele), and backup voices. The rhythm is provided by the piano playing in a major key, even though it is a somber song. You can hear the main bass piano melody, of three different notes, the fourth and second being the same pitch, clearly in the opening until Adele’s voice come is at 0:14 and the piano becomes the accompaniment.  This creates a homophonic melody. Adele starts off with very low pitches and a soft timbre. However as she keeps going, the intensity builds, the piano and her voice both gets louder, until it fades at 1:11 to give the indication that the verse is ending and the chorus is about to begin.

As soon as the chorus begins, the dynamics pick up again. Also, I believe the tempo speeds up a little as well. The biggest change is Adele’s voice, as she singing at higher pitch and the tone of her voice goes from soft and sad to angry and sharp.

In verse two, it repeats the same dynamics, timbre, tempo, and chords as verse one opened with, but towards the end of the verse at 2:19, the tempo picks up until the chorus at 2:37. The chorus this time is also not the same as the first one. At the end of chorus two, the line “Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead” stays in the same octave as the rest of the chorus, where in chorus one she jumped up an octave when she sang that line. Also, unlike chorus one, it is not repeated a second time.

In the third verse, a backup vocal is introduced and accompany Adele until right before the chorus, but Adele and the backup don’t stay in unison through the whole verse. Then in the third chorus at 3:21, everything slows down and the piano begins to change. The piano starts to just play the individual notes instead of chords on the downbeat of each measure. The tone of Adele’s voice returns to how she opened the song. Then at 3:37, the piano returns to playing the melody from the previous verse. Finally the entire chorus lyrics gets repeated again, and the piano goes back to the original main bass melody. As both vocals and piano become the loudest it has been in entire song. Then the volume quickly drops after “instead,” with the “yeah, yeah, yeah” the song fades to just the soft piano melody.

 

 



Comments:

"How would we describe form of popular music? Since most songs have a chorus, and sometimes musicians change up elements in their verses. I saw you left it out in your example. I was just curious."
posted on Feb 22, 2013, on the post Elements Instructions

"Channel Orange is a great album. I definitely agree that there are changes between the chorus and the verses, but besides pitch do you think the timbre or the chord progression changes?"
posted on Feb 22, 2013, on the post Frank Ocean- Thinking About You

"As a fan of "ambience" and Afterlife, this song is great, with all the different types of percussion like you said the shaker and I think he uses a wood block too later in the song. What makes Afterlife a great artist and producer is that he able to create a very mellow timbre with long and smooth notes, which I think you accidently left out. The color of his songs gives the listener that "chillax" feeling."
posted on Feb 22, 2013, on the post Afterlife – “Cry”