Music Appreciation, Tuesday period 2

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded at the students once they were seated. "Today we will begin with a bit of opera. For those of you who may not be aware," he nodded at the students from other worlds, "opera is a musical form of drama. It tells a story in song, accompanied generally by an orchestra."

He wrote a title on the board. "Today we will listen to some of La Bohème, an opera by a composer named Giacomo Puccini. It was originally performed in 1896, and set in Paris in the 1840s." He smiled briefly at Cosette assuming she's there. "It follows a story of several bohemians - artists and such - and the romance of two of them, Rodolfo and Mimi."

He explained the plot briefly and then played excerpts from a traditional production. When that was done, he said, "Also, there has been a more recent production, set in the 1950s. As one example of how to modernize opera, we have this."

//On the other end of the spectrum,// Jono said, leaning back against a desk and holding up a CD for the class to see, //we have a more modern retelling still, prevalent on the Broadway stage, by the name of meta for RENT. They took it, set it in New York, and then worked in current themes and issues, such as drug abuse and homosexuality, and had AIDS taking the place of the tuberculosis from the original.// He wasn't going to launch into an explanation of those things for the less modern students in the class, because they would never get through the syllabus otherwise. He was learning! //The result is a rock musical that draws parallels to La Bohème in everything from plot elements and character names to samples of the music itself. Here...//

Jono put the disc into the CD player, hit a few buttons, and stood back, letting La Vie Bohème begin to play. Not work school appropriate? Did Jono look terribly as though he cared?

Did Hannibal? These were clearly the coolest teachers in school, you guys.

//Anyway, now that you've listened to three examples of the same, or at least a very similar story told differently over the years, I want us to take some time to discuss it. Talk about what emotions the three pieces made you feel, or discuss the differences in the lyrics and themes between them. If you want to listen to more of one or the other, feel free to ask, and we'll play whatever we have time for through the class period. If you have questions about any of the themes in any of the above, again, ask, and we'll do our best to answer whatever we can.//

Comments

Sign in!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Livin' la vie Bohème!

Re: Sign in!

[likes-ducklings.livejournal.com]

Rapunzel

Re: Sign in!

[wildandbrave]

Cosette Fauchelevent

Re: Sign in!

[notamascot]

Kaylin Neya

Listen to the lecture, ask questions

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

It is long and full of music! And talking! Both of these things.

Re: Listen to the lecture, ask questions

[wildandbrave]

Oh! Opera! Cosette was definitely interested, especially since Puccini's opera seemed to be set just past her time period. (It was probably a mixed blessing that she had no idea how much Mimi and her mother had in common except Rodolfo wasn't a fraction of the jerk Tholomyès was.)

Éponine, if she knew what was going on in this class, would be rolling her eyes about how the details of the bohemian life were probably going right over Cosette's overly-sheltered head.

By the time they got to the modern musical Cosette was thoroughly engrossed in, well, everything. Yes, she found the contemporary music a bit jarring at first, but once she got used to it she liked it just fine. She still preferred the operatic music, but just by a small margin.

Re: Listen to the lecture, ask questions

[notamascot]

Kaylin came in, a bit late, which was pretty good for her, and promptly fell asleep. She'd gotten an emergency call from the midwife's guild last night and hadn't portaled back to Fandom until the sun was already coming up. But she was here! That should count for something!

Re: Listen to the lecture, ask questions

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"Thank you for joining us, Ms. Neya," Hannibal said, rapping on her desk to wake her. "Are you enjoying the music?"

[OOC: As an alternative to getting eaten - detention? :D ]

Re: Listen to the lecture, ask questions

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil was here! He didn't really know the opera parts, but they were pretty nifty. RENT he knew! They'd done it in elementary school.

Because Night Vale.

Discuss!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

How you feel about the excerpts of La Bohème or RENT that you've heard, any questions you might have about the themes of either, observations about lyrics and the like… whatever comes to mind, really. This is music appreciation. Appreciate!

La Vie Boheme lyrics (http://www.metrolyrics.com/la-vie-boheme-lyrics-rent.html)
La Bohème libretto in English (http://www.murashev.com/opera/La_boh%C3%A8me_libretto_English)
List of arias with synopses (http://www.aria-database.com/cgi-bin/aria-search.pl?opera=La+Boh%E8me&a)

Re: Discuss!

[likes-ducklings.livejournal.com]

"It seems," Rapunzel said quietly, thinking it over, "like both of them um...acknowledge that tragedy is present, with all the, um, sickness?" Not that she knew what either tuberculosis or AIDS was, but she'd pieced together that they were illnesses of some sort. "But they both seem to want to encourage us to live our lives, no matter what horrible things might be happening. I don't know if that's right, but...that's how that music makes me feel, even if I didn't understand a lot of the lyrics."

Like most of La Vie Boheme. Thank god.

She shrugged, and added, "I don't know what a bohemian is, still, though." Raven had mentioned them before and now Rapunzel was extra curious.

Re: Discuss!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"It originally meant someone from Bohemia," Hannibal answered. "For those of you familiar with our current geography, that would be more or less the Czech Republic. But the current meaning," he continued to Rapunzel, "is somebody with an eccentric and often artistic lifestyle. Somebody who challenges the norms of society."

Like cannibals, right?

"And I think your reading is a good one, whether it's what the writers intended or not. Music is meant to make you feel, after all. And persistence and happiness in the face of adversity is hardly a bad thing."

Eat Hannibal's food!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Cheddar gougeres (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/cheddar-gougeres)
Pork rillettes (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pork-rillettes)
Reblochon tarts with bacon and fingerling potatoes (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/reblochon-tarts-with-bacon-and-fingerling-potatoes)
Frothy lettuce soup with onion custard (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/frothy-lettuce-soup-with-onion-custard)
Molten chocolate cakes (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cakes-vongerichten)

Re: Eat Hannibal's food!

[likes-ducklings.livejournal.com]

Once again, Rapunzel had a little of everything, and gave Pascal (quietly perched on her shoulder today) a little of the cheese...things.

But her favorite? Was that cake. Rapunzel really felt, suddenly, that every cake she'd ever made was kind of pathetic in comparison. But that was okay, really, because she had this cake now and everything was amazing because of that.

Re: Eat Hannibal's food!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"He might enjoy the lettuce soup," Hannibal murmured in passing, nodding to Pascal. "And you might enjoy one of my cooking classes," he added to Rapunzel.

Talk to the teachers!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Once they tag in.

Re: Talk to the teachers!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Hannibal is here, and pleased with all the music. Yes, even Rent!

Re: Talk to the teachers!

[notamascot]

At the end of the class, Kaylin dutifully made her way up to Hannibal. She had noticed the food, but hadn't dared eat any lest a full stomach tip her back over into sleepiness. Still, it made her aware that she hadn't eaten anything since... maybe yesterday sometime?

The birth had been a hard one and the healing had taken a great deal out of her, but nothing that a good day or so of sleep wouldn't cure.

"Sir?"

Re: Talk to the teachers!

[furnaceface]

Jono has totally been here all day was there too, and so help him, he had managed to earworm himself with pretty much all of Roger's songs, ever. And he couldn't even hum them to try to get it out of his system.

So that was fun.

Re: Talk to the teachers!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

On the bright side, if he had, he might have passed the earworm on to Hannibal. As it was, if he mentally hummed it and did that, Hannibal was sure he had a knife around here somewhere...

What? It wasn't like it would really harm him. Hannibal would even bandage him!

OOC!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Do you go to the Cat Scratch Club?
That's where I work, I dance.
Yes! They used to tie you up.
It's a living.

Re: OOC!

[likes-ducklings.livejournal.com]

Do you wanna dance?

With you?

No. With my father.

Merci beaucoup for the earworm, omg.

Re: OOC!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

*evil cackle*

And I'm not even doing it to myself, just y'all! I haven't ever heard Rent, though I hope to fix that tonight.

(But you can blame Shannon for adding it. I just copypastad. *g*)

Re: OOC!

[wildandbrave]

Now I have a mashup of "Che gelida manina" and "Light My Candle" in my head and I wish I could extract it from there in audio form and share it because it is THE WEIRDEST THING.

Also amused remembering that Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Barks, and Anne Hathaway used to go out and do songs from RENT at karaoke bars while they were shooting the movie.

Re: OOC!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

I would totally love to hear that song! :D We need brain radio!