Blog Post 10

While watching this video, I immediately recognized the song not because I am well versed in opera, but because its the song Robin Williams sings in Mrs. Doubtfire when he is doing the voice work for the cartoon bird. I thought this was interesting after reading about how opera took shape and filtered into the popular culture in the 1800's. Its fascinating that it still pops up like that today.
This is Largo al factotum (della citta!) from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini. This particular song is fast paced and lively. It reflects the character's mood and personality quite well. There is a full orchestra playing, but the whole orchestra does not play at once. Different instruments play at different times to create unique sounds that convey certain emotions and attitudes. The music also supports the vocals instead of competing with or overshadowing. The singer uses a lot of vibratos in his singing. The texture of the song is varies; it is noticeably thinner in some places and much thicker in others depending on the instruments playing. This creates depth in the song.
Only the main character sings in this piece. All other actors on stage are silent and they simply dance and move around. Their emotion is conveyed throughout the music and their movements on stage. The focus stays on the main singer and the other actors play a supporting role. None of them takes away focus from the singer even when doing aerobatics because the attention is still caught by the person singing. He is even dressed more elaborately than everyone else thus commanding more attention.