Monday, March 29, 2010
Blog Post 10
I chose this video because I am so used to seeing either Europeans or Americans perform opera, and I had never seen a Chinese orchestra and vocalist perform before. Liao Changyong, the vocalist in this video, sang with the strong vibrato that is typical of these Italian Operas. A particularly strong example of this is at 2:42.
Because the arena he performed at apparently was very large and did not have the best acoustics, there was a slight echo, which made some of the syllables difficult to distinguish from one another. The singer himself, however, moved, sometimes even acted, with the music, and carried himself and his facial expressions in such a way that it was apparent that he had internalized the music and was wanting to put on an entertaining show. See 3:29 especially.
City light decorations in the background gave the performance a feel of show-business or some kind of a more lighthearted performance, as opposed to an opera sung in an opera house.
The audience stayed completely quiet, even at moments when an American audience may of whistled or clapped or shouted (such as 3:37), but erupted at the end.
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I thought it was interesting that this performance, unlike a conventional opera performance, was not on a traditional stage with curtains and a set. It is a concert, rather than an operatic performance. There are also no silent actors for the soloist to interact with, and the soloist is dressed in formal suit rather than a costume that would suit Figaro, the barber.
ReplyDeleteThis is also the first Chinese performance I've seen. It's really interesting!
This video contains identical characteristics to many Italian opera's. With a Duple Meter and Simple Meter, and similar timbre, he is pretty much the same as any other professional opera singer. I find this also interesting, because I've never seen a professional Chinese singer perform Western style opera before.
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