Howard Goodall on Opera

As someone who is not very familiar with opera at all, it was very eye-opening to be exposed to some of the history of opera and what makes it so special. I would say the only real exposure I’ve had to opera was Antonin Pavarotti’s performance of “Nessun Dorma”. My parents often played it for me when I was a kid and I always loved singing along. Learning about Claudio Monteverdi, the father of opera, was interesting because until watching Howard Goodall, I had no idea he existed. He was known for his very popular secular and sacred works that were very emotional in nature. Like a lot of art, hearing that opera is very much tied into social events and politics doesn’t surprise me. It was interesting to see a play like Le Mariage de Figaro grow to such popularity but get banned by several governments. It took people like Mozart to disguise certain political messages in order for them to actually be heard instead of banned by aristocrats and monarchs.

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Performance Art Definition

Performance Art to me is something done to bring awareness to some aspect of sociality and culture. Often, performance art is driven by deep personal experiences by an individual, often negative experiences that create trauma for that individual or group. Performance art is often done in ways that are attention grabbing, obscure, and odd. Doing things in this way grab people’s attention and shines light on a subject that might not otherwise see the light of day. That being said, one has to make themselves uncomfortable and vulnerable in order to get their message across. It can be extremely difficult for people who are already vulnerable to expose themselves in this way but at a certain point, it has to be done. If the message has little relevance to themselves then the performance art piece will suffer as a result. Why try to send a vulnerable message that has little relevance to you when you could do something more personal. Everyone has their insecurities. Dig deep to find you...

Music Works and Comments

The first movement I'd like to talk about is Psychedelic Rock. I'm personally not a huge rock fan because it hurts my ears. That being said, my favorite artist from this genre (and favorite artist in all of music) is a different breed and that is the one and only, Tame Impala. Tame Impala's songs are created almost entirely by Kevin Parker. Parker writes, produces, and performs all of his music. Even though he is a modern artist, he still uses old technology to record his music. It gives his music a more organic feeling than what new digital equipment gives. My favorite album of his is "Currents" which is perfection from start to end. Next up is "InnerSpeaker" which is older and more psychedelic. The second musical movement that is one of my favorites is Motown. Featuring artists like Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, it’s hard to resist the auditory bliss that comes from listening to this genre. Some of my favorite songs are “Cruisin’” by Smokey and the ...

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