Gotta love the Opera

This past Saturday, Opera Memphis put on a terrific performance of Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi. The opera was very similar to Shakespeare’s play with the addition of music, singing, and dancing. The scoring for most of the pieces consisted of a full orchestra, sometimes there would be a choir, and sometimes there would be an aria sung by one of the main characters such as Macbeth, Ophelia, or Mac Duff. The dynamics in most of the pieces was f. The melodies for the post part were quite dramatic. This complemented the dramatic plot very well in which at every turn something new and exciting would occur. The melodies used on these dramatic harmonies were quite complex. They insinuate a w lot of text painting at various different times as well. The opera went through a wide variety of key signatures throughout the different pieces. The form and texture also varied throughout. The texture varied between polyphonic and homophonic. The text was a story about power and how far one man will go when he hears that he is destined to ultimately become king and then later hears predictions of his downfall. One of the mains parts of the opera comes in the third act when the witches tell him of his downfall and what to beware of. At this time there is a huge dance being performed which I thought was quite fascinating. I for some moment forgot that I was at the opera and thought that I was at the ballet and then when someone started to sing again I was confused but quickly remembered where I was. That is how empowering that dance was for me. Now I am really looking forward to Rossini’s Cinderella.

My Dream My Passion My Destiny

I have had a passion about singing all of my life but in 9th grade I found my niche within singing and that is opera/ Broadway music. This past Saturday GPAC hosted the regional auditions to a competition which will ultimately allow one person to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in none other than my home town of New York. Unfortunately I did not find out about these auditions or the qualifier before hand because if I had known you can bet your bottom dollar I would have worked my ass off trying to be the next "Opera Idol" lol. Despite the fact I could not compete I decided to check out the auditions to size up my competition for years to come. There were definitely some people who could sing hands down, however, I truly believe in myself and I think that I could take them all. I do not mean to sound cocky its just that in order to be good you have to have confidence. In this blog I am fearless, however, when I am on stage I am more tense than I can even describe. I want to be up there competing one day fighting my way to the top. I believe in myself no matter what anyone says and nobody in all of oz no wizard that there is or was is ever gonna bring me down! I do not just want to dream it I want to be it. I want thousands of people staring at me as I belt a B-flat in an aria. So how am I going to do all this you might ask yourself. The answer is hard work and determination. I will stop at nothing until I find my way to the top. I know I can outsing those people, now its time to prove it.

A Lesson About A Lesson Before Dying

This past Friday I went to go see A Lesson Before Dying at Circuit Playhouse. I went into the theatre completely blind about what I was about to see. Based on the title I thought maybe it would be about an elderly man who is about to die who goes on a few adventures before he is kicks the bucket. Unfortunately I was completely wrong. The play was about an African American man sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. I truly could not stand being in the theatre. The acting and story on the whole were powerful and amazing but I just could not stand the truth that existed within the play. I am so sick and tired of listening to, hearing about, and experiencing issues of race. I just cannot take it anymore. We are all G-d's children and it makes me sick to my stomach that racial situations like this existed in our past and even more despicably still exist today. If there was no real life truth to that play than Ithink I would have been quite moved by it but unfortunately our society to a large extent is still living in that play and it is something that must be overcome. It makes me physically ill to think of all of the incredibly wonderful things that African Americans have done for our culture and to see them being violated in such a crude regard. I seriously wanted to get up and walk out somewhere in the middle of the second act. Why do we have to live in a world like this? Why can't people just look past color. Until I came to Memphis 3 years ago I had no idea racism still existed because race is not a big issue up north. I just wish that man lived and the people who put him there would have been put on the chair themselves.