German Opera Compared to the Argentenian Group Les Luthiers

81,799,600 people live in Germany

German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, Italian 0.7%, Greek 0.4%, Polish 0.4%, other 4.6%

Protestant 34%, Roman Catholic 34%, Muslim 3.7%, unaffiliated or other 28.3%

It’s 357,021 km2 big Germany is in Western and

Central Europe, bordering Denmark in the north, Poland and the Czech Republic in the east, Austria and Switzerland in the south, France and Luxembourg in the south-west, and Belgium and the Netherlands in the north-west.

Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a major concert hall and former opera house in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

National Theatre Munich is an opera house in Max-Joseph-Platz, in Munich, Germany

Staatstheater Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Theatre) is an opera house in Stuttgart, Germany

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting.

Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble

During much of the 17th and 18th centuries German-language opera would struggle to emerge from the shadow of its Italian-language rival, with leading German-born composers such as Handel and Gluck opting to work in foreign traditions such as opera seria.

It was only with the appearance of Mozart that a lasting tradition of serious German-language opera was established

Mozart took the simple, popular genre of Singspiel (spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias) and turned it into something far more sophisticated.

Beethoven followed his example with the idealistic Fidelio; and with Der Freischütz of 1821, Weber established a uniquely German form of opera under the influence of Romanticism

Wind Instruments: The most popular woodwind instruments were piccolo, flute, reed, English horn, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone. Stringed Instruments: included violin, violoncello, viola, string, double bass, banjo, viola da gamba and string bass.Keyboard Instruments: piano, organ, celesta, harpsichord, clavichord and continuo. Percussion Instruments: bass drum, cowbells, rattle, glockenspiel, cymbals, castenets, marimba, tambourine, timpani, tubular bells, snare drum, tenor drum and xylophoneBass Instruments: Horn, natural horn, tuba, euphonium, baritone, cornet, trumpet, bass trombone, trombonePlucked Instruments: guitar, harp, lute, mandolin and cimbalom.Electronic Instruments: synthesizer, electric guitar, tape, computer and ondes martenot

He was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas", as they were later called).

Wagner's compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex texture, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs: musical themes associated with individual characters, places, ideas or plot elements.

Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works such as The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser which were in the romantic traditions of Weber and Meyerbeer, Wagner transformed operatic thought through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art").

This would achieve the synthesis of all the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, and was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852.

Wagner realized this concept most fully in the first half of the monumental four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

It is a cycle of four epic operas The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the

Nibelungenlied. The four dramas, which the composer described as a trilogy with a Vorabend

("preliminary evening"), are often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply the Ring.

Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four operas that constitute the Ring cycle are, in the order of the imagined events they portray:

Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Siegfried Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)

Although individual operas are performed as works in their own right, Wagner intended them to be a coherent whole, performed in a series.

The scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the eponymous magic Ring that grants domination over the entire world.

The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung.

The plot revolves around a magic ring that grants the power to rule the world, forged by the Nibelung dwarf Alberich from gold he stole from the Rhine maidens in the river Rhine. With the assistance of Loge, Wotan, the chief of the Gods, steals the Ring from Alberich, but is forced to hand it over to the giants, Fafner and Fasolt. Wotan's schemes to regain the Ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story. His grandson, the mortal Siegfried, wins the ring, as Wotan intended, but is eventually betrayed and slain as a result of the intrigues of Alberich's son Hagen. Finally, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, Siegfried's lover and Wotan's estranged daughter, returns the ring to the Rhine maidens. In the process, the Gods and their home, Valhalla, are destroyed.

Suddenly, Erda, the earth goddess, a primeval goddess older than Wotan, appears out of the ground. She warns Wotan of impending doom and urges him to give up the cursed ring. Troubled, Wotan calls the giants back and surrenders the ring. The giants, who stole gold and Freia, goddess of love, youth, and beauty, begin dividing the treasure, but they quarrel over the ring itself. Fafner clubs Fasolt to death (the orchestra repeats the "Death-Curse" leitmotif). Wotan, horrified, realizes that Alberich's curse has terrible power. Loge remarks that Wotan is indeed a lucky fellow; his enemies are killing each other for the gold he gave up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm-hppPIexk (3:23)

222 pages http://216.129.110.22/files/imglnks/

usimg/3/3d/IMSLP33408-PMLP21241-Wagner_-_Das_Rheingold__Scene_4_.pdf

As a significant element in the Ring and his subsequent works, Wagner adopted the use of leitmotifs. These are recurring themes and/or harmonic progressions. They musically denote an action, object, emotion, character or other subject mentioned in the text and/or presented onstage. Wagner referred to them in ‘Opera and Drama’ as "guides-to-feeling", and described how they could be used to inform the listener of a musical or dramatic subtext to the action onstage in the same way as a Greek Chorus did for Attic Drama. While other composers before Wagner had already used similar techniques, the Ring was a landmark in the extent to which they were employed, and in the ingenuity of their combination and development.

The scale of the whole work is established in the prelude, over 136 bars, beginning with a low E flat, and building in more and more elaborate figurations of the chord of E flat major, to portray the motion of the river Rhine. It is considered the best-known drone piece in the concert repertory, lasting approximately four minutes.

Drone: a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The word drone is also used to refer to any part of a musical instrument that is just used to produce such an effect

Melody: Monophonic (one person at a time), leitmotif used for

each character Harmony:

Mostly instrumental, vocals mixed in Meter:

Depended on the scene; dramatic scene = faster tempo

Form: No specific form; chronological order with story

Style: Would increase and decrease in volume depending

on the dialogue exchange (would indicate shouting)

Woodwinds: a piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd doubles 2nd piccolo), 4 oboes (4th doubles cor anglais), 3 clarinets in A and B-flat, bass clarinet in A and B-flat and 3 bassoons.

Brass: 8 horns, (doubling as necessary with tenor and bass Wagner tubas), 3 trumpets, bass trumpet, 4 trombones and a contrabass tuba

Percussion: 2 sets of timpani, triangle, cymbals, glockenspiel and tam-tam

Strings: 6 harps, (a seventh is required in the closing pages of Götterdämmerung), first violins, second violins, violas, cellos and double basses.

Das Rheingold requires the following additional instruments:

bass drum, 18 anvils, thunder machine.

an Argentine comedy-musical group, very popular also in several other Spanish-speaking countries

They were formed in 1967 by Gerardo Masana, during the height of a period of very intense Choral Music activity in Argentina's state universities.

Their outstanding characteristic is the home-made musical instruments (hence the name luthiers, French for "musical instrument maker"), some of them extremely sophisticated, which they skillfully employ in their recitals to produce music and texts full of high class and refined humor.

Les Luthiers began writing humorous pieces primarily in a Baroque style, especially imitating vocal genres such as cantatas, madrigals and serenatas.

Later, they diversified into humorous renditions of music in other genres, from romantic lieder and opera to pop, mariachi and even rap

Les Luthiers are known in particular for employing a diverse ensemble of invented instruments created from common, everyday materials. The group's first home-made musical instrument, the bass-pipe a vara (a sort of trombone), was created by Gerardo Masana, the founder of the group, by joining paperboard tubes found in the garbage and miscellaneous items. Forty years later, this instrument is still being used on stage.

The first informal instruments were relatively simple, like the Gum-Horn, made with a hose, a funnel and a trumpet's mouthpiece, and some of them were born as a parody of musical instruments, which is the case of the latín (referred to in English as fiddlecan) and the violata, bowed instruments whose resonating chambers are made out of a large tin for processed ham and a paint can respectively, the marimba de cocos, a marimba made out of coconuts, and others.

Inventor and instrument-maker Carlos Iraldi (1920–1995), as "Les Luthiers' luthier", was responsible for inventing several more sophisticated instruments, including the mandocleta, a bicycle whose rear wheel moves the strings of a mandolin, the bajo barríltono, a Double bass whose body is a giant barrel, and others.

a 'Peter and the Wolf' parody titled 'Teresa y el Oso' (Therese and the Bear) Peter and the Wolf: “Disney's animated adaptation

of Prokofiev's masterpiece, in which every character is represented musically by a different instrument. Young Peter decides to go hunting for the wolf that's been prowling around the village. Along the way, he is joined by his friends the bird, the duck and the cat. All the fun comes to end, however, when the wolf makes an appearance. Will Peter and his friends live to tell of their adventures?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DGakg9zyvs

Narrator: That, would have been a tranquil tomorrow of autumn in the forest, one morning of current and common autumn, if was not that already it was four in the afternoon and they were in summer. All the animals had been cited for the princess Teresa in a space of the forest to ascertain which of them was its promised, the duke Sigfrido the Straightened up. The duke, had been bewitched for the witch Rascal, that only had not transformed it into some animal of the forest, but besides, the memory had removed him. The Pajarillo Yellow, sang happily. The hayloft said: "Alone the love of the princess can return the human form to the duke". Just then, the Boar was presented Alí. The boar asked: "¿By that business about the princess is here?" "If", the hayloft said" they have cited Us to all. By the way, there comes, being dragged, the Brownish Mollusk". The mollusk asked: "I have lost my shell. It did not they see?" Just then, appeared flying the Butterfly Hopscotch.

Narrador: Aquella, habría sido una tranquila mañana de otoño en el bosque, una mañana de otoño común y corriente, si no fuera que ya eran las cuatro de la tarde y estaban en verano. Todos los animales habían sido citados por la princesa Teresa en un claro del bosque para averiguar cuál de ellos era su prometido, el duque Sigfrido el Erguido. El duque, había sido hechizado por la bruja Granuja, que no sólo lo había transformado en algún animal del bosque, sino que además, le había quitado la memoria. El Pajarillo Amarillo, cantaba alegremente. El pajarillo decía: “Solo el amor de la princesa puede devolver la forma humana al duque”. En ese momento, se presentó el Jabalí Alí. El jabalí preguntó: “¿Por lo de la princesa es aquí?” “Si”, dijo el pajarillo” Nos han citado a todos. A propósito, ahí viene, arrastrándose, el Molusco Pardusco”. El molusco preguntó: “He perdido mi caparazón. ¿No lo vieron?” En ese momento, apareció volando la Mariposa Golosa.

Melody: Monophonic (one person at a time), leitmotif used for

each character Harmony:

Mostly instrumental, talked alongside instruments Meter:

Depended on the scene; dramatic scene = faster tempo, casual scene = 4/4 time

Form: No specific form; chronological order with story

Style: Would increase and decrease in volume depending on

the characters and scenes occurring

GERMAN OPERA LES LUTHIERS

Melody: Monophonic (one person at a

time), leitmotif used for each character

Harmony: Mostly instrumental, vocals mixed

in Meter:

Depended on the scene; dramatic scene = faster tempo

Form: No specific form; chronological

order with story Style:

Would increase and decrease in volume depending on the dialogue exchange (would indicate shouting)

Melody: Monophonic (one person at a time),

leitmotif used for each character Harmony:

Mostly instrumental, talked alongside instruments

Meter: Depended on the scene; dramatic

scene = faster tempo, casual scene = 4/4 time

Form: No specific form; chronological order

with story Style:

Would increase and decrease in volume depending on the characters and scenes occurring

GERMAN OPERAS LES LUTHIERS

Instruments were more formal and categorized

Stories were sung aloud Stories contained more

dramatic themes

Instruments were informal and make-shift

Stories were narrated along with music

Stories were more comical and parodical.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855617.html http://www.indexmundi.com/germany/religions.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-

factbook/geos/gm.html http://wired-destinations.com/hotels/Germany/guide.php?

path=intro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_in_German http://www.buzzle.com/articles/german-musical-

instruments.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Rheingold http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~chema/luthiers/053.html http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038836/plotsummary

Tips

German culture acceptance of Wagner’s music (nationalistic concepts)

Discuss that the opera is played today