post 10

href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpW8Jvl9low&NR=1">
This is a link to Puccini's Madame Butterfly. The melody is something that perhaps many people know but they don't know where it comes from or who it was written by.

The music is very melodic and describes the situation well. It is more in the cantabile style, slow and melodic. The melody has a sad, longing feel to it. It is slow and feels like it can drag on and on because the melody never really concludes for the singer. The dynamics are well balanced in that there are softer parts and some stronger parts to contrast with the music and the feeling of the scene creating an effective piece for the opera. Building up to the climax of the piece, the same melodic line is repeated multiple times to create the tension leading to the climax.

While the performer is singing, she is also acting. She doesn't do much other than make small movements but everything is expressed through her voice. The opera style technique being used only makes the music even more fluid and smooth and more emotional. The singer seems to sing "with her whole body" in that it seems she uses a huge effort in order to sing. This brings out the fact that the character, Madame Butterfly, is very much dependent on the Caucasian man. Since it is opera, the acting comes through the voice but it also comes through the way the performer acts. Everything she does will be towards the projection of the expression in the music which is written so she can express the feeling of the moment in the opera.

I have no idea why this whole linking thing isn't working....=[