Everest Study Guide

STUDY GUIDE 1 Everest Study Guide Table of Contents Welcome 3 Introduction to Opera 4 A Night at the Opera 6 Opera Terms and Voice Categories 7 About Our Director 8 About the Composer: Joby Talbot 9 A Brief History of Climbing Mt. Everest 10 Synopsis 11 Cast of Characters & Performance History of an Opera 12 A Brief History of the Making of Talbot’s Everest 13 Set and Projections in the Opera 14 An Opera in Music 15 For Teachers 16 References 17 2 Everest Study Guide WELCOME! “Opera is about life and everything that entails—love, hate and passion.” - Lesley Garrett Dear teachers and students, Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Patricia Kesler, and I am the new Education and Outreach Coordina- tor at Calgary Opera. I’m very excited to be here and look forward to sharing my love of opera with all of you. Something happens in the theatre when the lights go down, the orchestra’s music begins to swell and the curtains open. We catch a first glimpse of the set and immediately begin to rise into an imagined world, one with no borders save for the edge of the stage and the depth of one’s capacity to believe. “Some say that the best part of the opera is the anticipation. House lights. Orchestra. Curtain up into a world of wonder.” Pam Brown, b. 1928 Miraculous events occur in opera: an ice-hearted princess opens to love, two centuries-old feuding families decide to put aside their differences, lovers find each other across immeasurable distance and hardship and misunderstanding. Yet these are the miracles of every day life, the miracle of being human and of having a heart. Opera can remind us of feelings we have long since laid down: yearning, hope, loss, but it is in feeling these emotions that we connect to the story, to the characters on stage, to each other. Sitting in the dark theatre with hundreds of others we have the chance to remember, to start again, to feel, to love. This is my hope for you, the wish that I have for your students, to find this beauty and this reminder of our common humanity on the opera stage, and to return to it, again and again. Patricia Kesler Education and Outreach Coordinator Calgary Opera WARNING: This opera contains strong language and mature subject matter. We recommend all audience members be +13. 3 Everest Study Guide INTRODUCTION TO OPERA The word opera comes from the Italian “opera in musica,” this day we can hear the music in performance and which means “works or plays in music.” Simply put, opera is recordings: https://youtu.be/sKD1qUVJJBU a play in which the characters sing their lines rather than speak them, with music as its driving force. It is a mixture of many different types of art, combining music, drama, dance elaborate costumes and scenery. Traditional view holds that the first completely sung musical drama (or opera) developed as a result of discussions held in Florence in the 1570s by a group of intellectuals, poets, artist, scientists and humanists such as composers Giulio Caccini, Peri and Vincenzo Galilei (father of astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei, particularly known for his improvements to the telescope). The Florentine Camerata, as they called themselves, explored trends in the arts, focusing on music and drama. One particular point of focus was their joint belief that music, in particular vocal works, had become over-embellished and that returning to a more Opera has flourished throughout the world as a vehicle pure form would be a powerful way to tell stories and for the expression of the full range of human emotions. express emotions. Gathering inspiration from Classical Italians claim the art form as their own, retaining dominance Greece, its dramas and the idea of the Greek chorus, which in the field through the death of Giacomo Puccini in 1924. acts as a commentator reporting on the actions, they Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Leoncavallo developed evolved the idea of “recitativo” — a single vocal line, sung in the art form through clearly a free, declamatory style, with simple instrumental support. defined periods that produced opera buffa, opera seria, bel canto and verismo. Mozart (1756-1791) wrote operas in Italian as well as German and championed the singspiel (sing play), which combined the spoken word with music (The Magic Flute 1791, Abduction At the time it was argued that recitativo was far superior to from the Seraglio 1782), a form spoken verse, since the musical inflections intensified the also used by Beethoven in his implied emotions. Thus, it is no wonder that many of opera Fidelio. Bizet (Carmen), Offenbach (Les Contes the first operas were based on Greek tragedies with D’Hoffmann), Gounod (Faust) and Meyerbeer (Les mythological themes. Huguenots) led the adaptation by the French which ranged The first opera composed by Jacopo Peri in 1597, Dafne, from the opera comique to the grand full-scale tragedie about the nymph who fled from Apollo and was turned into lyrique. German composers von Weber (Der Fresichutz), a laurel tree as a way to save her virtue, was a through- Richard Strauss (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Wagner (Der Ring composed musical work comprised of recitative sections, to des Nibelungen) developed diverse forms such as singspiel reveal the plot of the drama, and arias, which provided the to through-composed spectacles unified through the uses of soloist an opportunity to develop the emotions of the leitmotif. The English ballad opera, Spanish zarzuela and character. Sadly most of the music for the opera has been Viennese operetta helped to establish opera as a form of lost. However, Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, composed in entertainment which continues to enjoy great popularity 1607 based on the Orpheus myth, was very successful. To throughout the world. 4 Everest Study Guide With the beginning of the 20th century, composers in North America diverged from European traditions in order to focus on their own roots while exploring and developing the vast body of the country’s folk music and legends. Composers such as George Gershwin with Porgy and Bess, Douglas Moore with The Ballad of Baby Doe, Carlisle Floyd with Suzanna, John Adams with Nixon in China and Gian Carlo Menotti with The Medium have all crafted operas that have been presented throughout the world to great success. In Canada, composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell were commissioned by Calgary Opera to produce Filumena, based on a true Canadian John Adams’ Nixon in China, Vancouver Opera story of the last woman to be hanged in Alberta — which https://youtu.be/vd-ODo8v06A premiered in 2003 in Calgary to great success, and is one of the most produced Canadian grand operas in the world. George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at Teatro la Scala https://youtu.be/VfziZxrXNy0 Laura Whalen as the title character in Calgary Opera’s Filumena (2003) Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, Pensacola Opera https://youtu.be/_4Riw2wLsww https://youtu.be/uReeJn3v0EM 5 Everest Study Guide A NIGHT AT THE OPERA: Your Guide to a Night to Remember There are many preconceived notions propagated by Food and drink are not allowed inside the hall and, since popular media about opera, so a first visit to an sound carries due to the acoustics of the hall, please open operatic performance may bring up a number of questions. any candies you might have prior to the start of the show. Here are some tips on how to make your night at the opera Also remember that many hours have gone into bringing most enjoyable. this particular production to you, so please be considerate of the performers and your fellow audience members and By far, the most popular question and concern is: turn off and put away your cell phones. What do I wear to the opera? Please remember that photography is not permitted once the performance starts. The design and direction of the In the past, opera audiences have been known to wear show is protected under intellectual property laws and only lavish gowns as well as top hats and bow ties, giving the the official Calgary Opera photographers can take pictures. rest of the public a feeling that opera isn’t for everyone, which is definitely not the case! In today’s opera lovers’ Another big concern that the public has about opera is the world audiences come dressed in whatever they feel most fact that it is in a different language. This, of course, is true comfortable! Your pajamas might attract stares, but to for most operas. However, like any foreign film that is each his own! accessible to the public, opera always, no matter what https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2012/ language it’s sung in, has easy to read supertitles which are oct/18/what-should-you-wear-at-theatre projected above the stage. Where are the performances held? Please, do feel free to show your appreciation to the performers by laughing at the humorous parts and All Calgary Opera’s productions are held at the Southern applauding after a well—performed aria. If you were Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. If you are driving, it is particularly impressed by a performer’s vocal acrobatics, recommended that you arrive approximately 45 minutes feel free to express your enthusiasm vocally as well as by prior to the start of the show to avoid traffic. Another great applause; if you hear fellow audience members shout reason to ensure that you arrive on time is that if you are “bravo” for a man, “brava” for a woman or “bravi” for a late, you may have to wait in the lobby for the late arrival group of performers, chime in if the spirit moves you! It’s entries and watch the opera from the monitors in the all part of your unique opera experience! And remember, lobby for a period of time rather than from your seat.

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