Here are the group and individual activities for Day 12.
FEEDBACK:
Remember my two guidelines:
ACTIVITIES:
The following is taken from “The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Opera” by William Berger.
Composers:
“Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919): In sum, the Italian composer Leoncavallo must be regarded as another “one-hit wonder” of the verismo period. His short, intense opera I pagliacci (The Clowns) has been enormously popular since its premiere. It has been welded to its fellow verismo masterpiece, Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, by most opera companies, and together Cav and Pag have become staples of the operatic circuit. They work well together, both dealing with the overflowing emotions of everyday people who have been driven to extreme acts by life’s realities. Pagliacci, in particular, with its familiar aria “Vesti la giubba,” has come to stand for all Italian opera in the public mind, as misleading as this may be. Like Mascagni, Leoncavallo never repeated this early success. He wrote a Boheme the year after Puccini’s, but Puccini won the Boheme battle and Leoncavallo’s has been relegated to the curiosity file. Leoncavallo turned to operetta, but his gifts of depicting passionate outburst were ill-suited for the form, and he turned to teaching.”
On the separate piece of paper:
What similarities did you notice about Mozart and Bizet? What were some differences?
Bonus: Name the person who was Mozart’s librettist for three of his operas..
How would an opera be affected by verismo?
Bonus: Name another Italian composer and an opera that used verismo as part of the opera.
Journal Activity:
Additional group activities:
1. Continue work on your Opera Presentation (project) “Hansel & Gretel.” (Characters, plot, songs, etc.)
a. We will start presentations
b. You must have a typed libretto and give it to me before the presentation.
c. It must be five (5) minutes in length.
12/11/2002