The Freaks!! Performance Report 2

Introduction

I went to the Saturday show of Side Show. It was a large theater production by UT Dallas. The performance was on the night of Saturday April 17^th . This is an adaptation of a Broadway play that was adapted for college performers. I was able to get a up-close view of the musical by seating directly in the front row so I was able to enjoy aspects of acting that may not be able to be seen close up.

Music

The first thing I notice is that the music never ends! The orchestra, which is located in a non-prevalent position in the back of the stage, accompanied the singers/actors in the front. In a large scale stage production, I believe the orchestra would be located in the pit, if the stage had one.

The instruments were common of the typical theater setup including an electric keyboard, drum set, various brass instruments, a flute, tuba, sax, and more. I couldn't distinguish a certain style to many of the songs but one song, in particular had heavy jazz influence and several songs, obviously, sounded close to carnival, side show, music. The jazz piece included elements of music like snapping by the singers. Speaking of singers, most of them used vibrato a large amount in their singing.

Performers

As I mentioned earlier, the band is located in the back. There a couple syncing issues with the music performers being in the back with no clear view of the actors. For the most part, I believe this is solved by the director having a screen to see the stage from the audience's view. I'm not sure if this is the norm for musicals with a normal pit configuration but it would certainly make sense.

Many of the actors heavily reacted to the current scene. 'Audience' members that were really actors pretended to be watching and reacting to the show. Looking at each person, there seemed to be a narrative that the actor created for that character. I think I was able to focus on one person or another more easily because I was so close to the action.

Audience

The actors were able to use the audience to actually participate in the current scene. For example, the starting scene included a side show act where the 'freaks' came from the south side stairs by the audience. When Jake the Cannibal King was on display, he 'escaped' and scared audience members (real and fake) up and down the stairs, including me. It made me, at least, feel more involved in the show as a side show, not a musical. The show included many humor elements so the audience was able to participate by laughing and clapping.

Time and Space

The theater was mostly full. There was a line of seats directly next to me that was not occupied in the front row. Being in the front let me more easily see the actor's reactions and movements up close. It was hard to zoom out and see the general picture for scenes with more than one or two actors in it (which was most of it). Being in the front also made me feel shy about keeping program notes. It would seem rude to spend the entire time with a pencil and notebook in my hand.

The stage included a large red and yellow drape on the sides. As mentioned earlier, the band was located in the back behind major prop pieces. On of those prop pieces included a large roll-able podium for an actor to stand in and large crates.

Conclusion

Overall, the musical was a large production that makes me feel like everyone involved put a lot of hard work into the production. Side Show was performed by UT Dallas students and was very pleasant for me to watch even though I would not normally enjoy watching musicals.

Works Cited

Evans, Kathryn. Program notes. Side Show. 17 April 2010. Richardson: University Theatre.

Side Show. Dir. Kathyrn Evans. University Theatre, Richardson. 17 April 2010.

Alternative Rock

Alternative rock is a sub-genre of rock that I personally have been a fan of for most of my life. It became popular when I was young enough to be impressionable and old enough to be interested in the music that I listened to, which is around the mid-nineties.

In the dust settling from punk music, an underground genre emerged. This was what is now known as alternative rock. This is a strange genre because it is really hard to identify what exactly alternative rock is. However, the primary instrument is the guitar and the lyrics often contain stories that directly address controversial social or political issues.

Nirvana was certainly one of the main if not the main inspirations for the popularization of alternative rock and rock as a whole in the 90's.

The video above is Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. The song relies heavily on the drum set and guitar. The tone of the singer is calm until the chorus and then the singer simply yells. At the end, the singer seems almost hoarse from the yelling. An effect that the song uses is feedback from a guitar. This seems to reflect the small band style that included these kinds of sounds unintentionally when alternative was still underground.

Blog Post 11: The Gullah

The Gullah culture is derived from their African decent. Because of this, there are many similarities between the Gullah culture and cultures found in Africa. The Gullah were brought over into slavery and resided in South Carolina and Georgia. Their geographical location made is possible for much of the culture to be preserved. For example, they speak a creole language and use African names. As I said earlier, the Gullah have been isolated for a long time and sustained their unique culture until today. However, the isolation that has caused this unique culture has been breaking down and the Gullah culture is being pushed away from the primary culture into a historical perspective at festivals and special events. Even though the Gullah people adopted Christianity, they practiced worship in a wholly different way than the Anglicans. They incorporated the western religion into their own culture and was able to practice more freely.

One aspect of the culture that I found interesting was the fact that they believed in a type of witchcraft called wudu, wanga, joso, or juju. They believed that witches could place roots under a person's pillow and that would cast a spell on that person. They also believed in spirits that could enslave people and control their will. This is very relevant to the history of slavery in this culture.

The music, like other African music relies heavily on drum. Also like most African music, the music influences much dancing. I suspect some of the dances to be organized before-hand because there were parts that included different groups trading off different dance moves. There was one dance that involved a man on stilts. The songs with a vocal aspect included chanting and singing. As mentioned earlier, drums are the main instrument of the Gullah culture. Drumming is prevalent in every Gullah music that I have seen.

Performance Report 1: Shakespeare in Song

Introduction

The event I decided to attend, like most of my classmates was Shakespeare in Song presented by The University of Texas at Dallas Chamber Singers. Specifically, I attended the Saturday performance at 8PM. I was going to attend the 2PM show on that day but other obligations caused me to miss that show.

Music

The music all represented a Baroque style. According to the program notes, “The compositions chosen for this performance come from three sources: the authentic songs referred to above; the solo songs of the British composer Roger Quilter (whose rich song literature rivals that of his contemporary Ralph Vaughan Williams); and the choral arrangements of the songs of Shakespeare by Juilliard graduate Mathew Harris, who is now living and composing in New York City. Not surprisingly, they all have a Shakespearean flavor and many of the elements of early 17^th century music composers” (Evans). Like most chamber singer groups, there is a wide variety of vocal ranges represented by the singers. One thing I note in my programming notes is that in the earlier songs, drone was represented very well with the baritone and bass singers. The pianist played his role as an accompaniment part with the group as a whole and when there were solo pieces. The piano provided a different timbre from the choir as a whole but stayed somewhat in the background.

What I want to touch on more in this section is the themes represented in repertoire of music selected for this performance and how those were chosen to be presented. First, the performance was a hybrid of dialog and music performance. The setting of the particular play and act in the play were represented before and after each music piece. The most interesting part of the performance was the themes in the performance which included love, lust and alcohol use. I payed much closer attention to the dialog because of this. I sense that this was an intentional decision in order to gain more interest from their audience, UTD students. If that is the case, it worked for me.

Performers

The first thing I noticed when the singers and director walked in was their attire. They were all dressed in medieval clothing. All of the girls had dresses which looked Middle Aged in style. Men wore clothing ranging from tunics to vests with baggy low cut pants. Since the performers numbered around 20-30, they stood on risers so everyone could remain visible during the entire performance. As a previous member of a church choir and a previous high school student who had to take those panoramic class pictures every year, I know exactly how these singers feel. As I mentioned earlier

Audience

The audience was generally well-manured. I noted that a few latecomers to the performance come in up to 15 minutes late. I can see how that can be a little distracting to other audience members but I only noticed this because I was trying to be aware of what the audience is doing. One interaction that was very interesting to me was the fact that the conductor would signal the audience to applaud the choral. Sense there was dialog intermixed with the singing, it was hard to tell when a particular 'scene' was over. In particular, it was hard to know when to applaud when a song was over and dialog when continue directly after. Thus, the convention evolved into simply waiting for the director to signal the audience. I got the impression that most of the audience members were people doing assignments like me, genuinely interested guests, and friends and family of the performers. After the show, the mood was very casual. Most of the performers could be seen directly outside the auditorium talking to their friends and people who attended the show.

Time and Space

The performance was held at the Jonsson Performance Hall in the Erik Jonsson Academic Center on the campus of UT Dallas. The setting is very familiar to me because I have already had a couple classes in that room before.

Conclusion

Shakespeare in Song was a performance was a hybrid of music and dialog that fused aspects of choir and Shakespeare-style plays put on by The University of Texas at Dallas Chamber Singers. They had three different performance times over the weekend: March 26^th at 8PM; March 27^th at 2pm; and March 27^th at 8PM.

Works Cited

Evans, Kathryn. Program notes. Shakespeare in Song. 27 March 2010. Richardson: UTD Jonsson Performance Hall.

Shakespeare in Song. Dir. Kathyrn Evans. UTD Jonsson Performance Hall, Richardson. 27 March 2010.

Blog Post 10: Opera (Giuseppe Verdi)

I selected a video of a selection of opera where the composer is Giuseppe Verdi. He was a predecessor to Donizetti in Italian music for fifty years. Verdi was known for representing the tone of Romantic drama and passion.



This selection of the opera demonstrates what seems to be a parade with horns being the dominant sound. However, the sound is different than that of an emperor would have. The horns don't simply play short series of really loud notes followed by a longer like I would imagine a medieval king would be greeted to. However, there is a steady underlying beat of chordophone that supports the horns. I'm guessing there is a pit with a whole orchestra which provides the underline tone of the selection. There are no vocals at this point. The scenery of the set is very gold with large gold colored statues/pillars and a large chandelier. The three main figures are the horn players which is very well represented in the selection of the video. The horns play the roll of introducing each group of people displayed before what seems to be a throne with a king/pharaoh/emperor. The groups include people in blue robes with staffs that seem like monks, a group of what looks like warriors with shields and staffs and finally a cart with what looks like treasures. There are a great number of actors in this opera at the time with varied roles. Nearly everyone is wearing gold including the most dominant actors in this scene, the three horn players. The purpose of this selection of the opera is to display the majesty of the figure on the throne and the wealth that this empire has. This is probably an important feature of the opera by the amount of actors are put into this parade.

Even though this clip is only a little over a minute long and contains absolutely no dialog, I can tell that the scale of the opera must be large and the budget put into this opera has to be significant.

Blog Post 9: The Music of Avatar

It has been a relatively long time since I've seen the movie Avatar, but I have listened to the soundtrack recently to write this blog post.

The film score, like most films follow a certain template. The primary sound consists of heavy brass and string sounds. The brass sounds make for a more epic feeling and the string sounds create a more intricate, delicate emotion. This is altogether different from the Na'vi music.

The most district difference the film score and the Na'vi music have is the use of Na'vi words. The instrumental aspect of the Na'vi music includes heavy use of drums and a flute sound. To me, the Na'vi sounds like a mix of Native American and Tribal African music.

Music Ethnography: Dallas Opera

1. Introduction
My goal when picking a music culture for this assignment involved choosing a culture that I was completely unfamiliar with. Unlike some others in my class, I selected a music culture that I do not interact with regularly. As a result, I will review the aspects of music culture surrounding opera within the Dallas area by using my experience at an opera event and other research. I will also detail what I observe to be a change in the way opera has traditionally been viewed, which is causing change in the opera movie culture of Dallas.

2. Methodology
2.1 Online Research
The primary source for this essay is The Dallas Opera website. The Dallas Opera is a company in Dallas, Texas. Their website has interviews, news, schedules and more information that will allow me to better understand opera in the Dallas area.

2.2 Live event
On February 24, I attended an encore presentation of Simon Boccanegra performed at The Metropolitan Opera and originally broadcast live on February 6 at a local AMC Theater. This source will help frame opera all aspects of music culture within the context of modern day technology and let me comment on the cultural differences between a more traditional opera environment and the experience that I had at the AMC theater.

3. Aspects of Opera
3.1 Ideas About Opera
The Dallas Opera's says that opera is similar to a musical but instead of having the characters in the stage show occasionally bursting into song, the singing never stops (“What is Opera”). Operas are theatrical performance that includes a stage, an ensemble up to a full orchestra and a live audience. Operas incorporate aspects from music, dance and theater. Modern operas incorporate styles from cultures all over the globe. In order to save the cultural flavor, the Dallas Opera usually performs their operas in the original language (“Frequently Asked Questions”). Operas are able to continue due to sponsorship and their ticket sales. According to a survey referenced on the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra's website, The Dallas Opera had a budget of 10.12 million dollars. To put this in perspective, The Metropolitan Opera, which is by far the largest opera company in the United States, has a budget of 249.02 million dollars (“Opera Statistics from Top 15 Metro Areas”).

3.2 Activities Involving Opera
As I mentioned earlier, operas are commonly performed by a live audience in what is called an opera house. The Dallas Opera says that audience members to an opera usually wear business attire but even casual-wear is certainly allowed (“Frequently Asked Questions”).

After going to the movie theater broadcast of Simon Boccanegra performed at The Metropolitan Opera there are a lot of observations that I have made about the type of people who participate in this music culture. In total there was 13 people in the theater, all of which had white or gray hair except for 2 people, excluding me. None the audience looked under the age of 30 except for me, so from my observations, it seems like the music culture of opera consists of mid to late aged people. With no one in the audience that I could identify as anything other than Caucasian, there was little ethnic diversity in the audience. With what little I could see of the audience in The Metropolitan Opera House, I could draw the same conclusions about the ethnic diversity and age group and most audience members wore business attire. There are several aspects of watching a live event broadcast into a theater that made me consider the cultural shift that is happening because of the availability of technology.

• The movie theater atmosphere made the event a less of a social event than going to an opera house would. In the two intermissions of the nearly four hour opera, there was little conversation.

• Even though the event was broadcast all around the United States, there was very few people in each movie theater watching the show. This changes the way people can experience an opera drastically.

• The nationwide broadcast allows for a larger audience since it will be more convenient to go to a local movie theater than it is to drive into the nearest major city.

• The actual content is different. Instead of seeing a live event you are looking at a flat screen with a projected image with speakers playing the recorded audio. With this format, the pre-show content was able to have interviews and commercials which is uncommon in opera house showings.

3.3 Repertoires of Opera
The Dallas Opera lists the most popular operas as the following: “Aida (the Egyptian opera, elephants are optional), Boheme (or, to be precise, La bohème, a tale of starving artists that continues to inspire works like Rent and the movie musical Moulin Rouge), and Carmen, the opera that proves that smoking isn’t the only thing bad for your health” (“What is Opera”).

The Met Opera could be causing the same situation as the professional versus amateur performers in matsuri festivals in Japan. Just like the traveling professional performers subtract from the local flavor for each festival, the live events being broadcast to movie theaters could make opera fans less likely to attend a local opera in favor of the live broadcast of The Metropolitan Opera. The Dallas Opera does not do touring shows. They are produced to be performed in a small time frame and will be put into the warehouse so you might have once chance to see a particular production live (“What is Opera”).

3.4 Material Culture of Opera
Operas incorporate a lot of cultural elements of the original opera including the fashion and setting. Thus, a large amount of work is put into making realistic looking sets, costumes and makeup.

Conclusion
Opera contains a music culture that incorporates many other cultures in the performances and incorporates many aspects of those cultures into a completely sung theater performance with elaborate costumes, set designs, makeup and orchestral music. Operas have a vast history over several centuries but still continues to hold a relatively large audience and will probably continue to entertain many in one form or another. Despite popular consensus, operas have greatly changed and has adapted to using technology to provide closed captions for English-speaking audience and provide digital access at home or in a theater.

Works Cited
“Frequently Asked Questions.” The Dallas Opera. 2010. The Dallas Opera. 9 Mar. 2010 <http://www.dallasopera.org/learn/faq.php>.

“Opera Statistics from Top 15 Metro Areas.” Florida Grand Opera Orchestra. 9 Mar. 2010 <http://fgomusicians.org/item/opera-statistics-from-top-15-metro-areas>.

Simon Boccanegra . By Giuseppe Verdi. Dir. James Levine. Perf. Plácido Domingo. The Metropolitan Opera, New York. 24 Feb. 2010. Performance.

“What is Opera.” The Dallas Opera. 2010. The Dallas Opera. 9 Mar. 2010 <http://www.dallasopera.org/learn/what_is_opera.php>.