The birth of Opera:

The birth of Opera:

Before watching this video on the birth of Opera I did not realize that most operas were based on such violence love and politics. I was amazed at how the voice of the person cleaning the Coliseum in Verona was so loud without any electronic amplification. 

The Coliseum was built to amplify the human voice because of the lack of electronic amplification. Opera was born in Florence Italy in the late 1600s. The Cammarata were an intellectual social club made up of scientists, artists, poets, and musicians. They put together their first collaboration in 1598 called Daphne. Their second attempt for experimental opera was for a royal wedding which was not a success. Two of the guests at the wedding were influential Europeans that thought that this new form of entertainment had some potential. 

They had one of the world premier composers Claudio Monteverdi. 

In 1607 the opera L’Orfeo became a great success, during the annual Carnival at Mantua. This was an opera about love God and the afterlife so church music was used. I was totally amazed at the frescoes in the hidden room where Monteverdi practiced his operas which was concealed from the world for hundreds of years. It makes you wonder why the room was ever sealed away from the rest the world. Listening to the performances with the original is instruments almost take me back to a romantic time where these beautifully were first heard. 

The handcrafted instruments with a sound that isn't present today have such a warm tone versus a lot of electronic music of today. The opera was drama told through music, this was opera in a nutshell. The scenes in Venice and listening to them the male vocalist singing the opera really takes me back to my childhood when I lived in Italy. I feel an overwhelming sense of longing when I watch opera. It brings back a part of my life which I miss dearly. 

Venice became the hub of Opera with a staggering 19 opera houses open at the time. Opera's love affair for power love and destiny got it in some trouble in the following century. Mozart used Opera is a powerful vehicle to send messages to the public. Watching the scene of Figaro played by the students of the British opera house amazed me. The singers were skilled, as good as any Opera professionally produced, just amazing. Around the time of the French revolution in new type of Opera came to light, the escape from oppression of the ruling party, the most famous one being Fidelio by Beethoven. Giuseppe Verdi became one of the Italy’s most famous opera composers, with his nationalist propaganda. 

People all over the city graphitized his name, Viva Verdi. He became a deputy in the Italian parliament. Even in the 19th century opera found itself in the crosshairs of political conspiracies. 

Watching the excerpt from the opera Nixon in China, I was amazed at the size of the stage props. A full-size passenger jet lowered down to the stage just such an amazing effect, by John Addams in 1987. This opera was about the cold war. Before viewing this video I did not realize that they were making new operas in the late 19th century. I was astonished that China is gotten into the upper game I really did not think that they had any interest in opera. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Chinese students singing Italian opera, and how well they pronounced the words. This just shows how worldwide the phenomenon of Opera has really grown. All cultures around the world talk about their problems and tribulations through music. It is just human nature to do so.

Josephine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar.

Josephine Baker was born in illegitimate poor black child. Throughout her life she became the most famous woman in the world.

She always had a sense of pride in representing her people. She became a dancer in the black vaudeville in 1921, in the great city of New York. Some of the shows that she participated in were Dixie stepper and shuffle along. In this time, black performers blackened their faces so they could pass as whites performing as blacks. Performing in the chorus line, she was always at the end of line making faces and being out of step. This got her noticed she became known as that girl.

She joined an all-black revue chorus line in 1925 and went to Europe to find freedom. Arriving in France she turned Paris’s head in 1925. She was treated as a normal person not as a black African-American like she wasn't in America. The Parisians treated her as an exotic wildflower. She danced onstage naked just a flamingo feather, she was considered beautiful sexy and funny. She became a symbol of sexual liberation took many liberties with sex both male and female, and had quite exotic lifestyle. She even had a baby cheetah that she would walk around on the leash. One of her most exotic dances was the banana girl dance. She danced on stage with nothing but a skirt of bananas.

She became a role model to many French women at the time and starred in films and opened her own nightclub. She was the first black actor in a major motion picture. She came back to the United States to perform. Nothing really had changed for her, she was spent on the she walked into a hotel. In an interview she said she was not angry with the woman that sat on her, and that she was only brought up that way. Heartbroken, she returned to France on November of 1937 denounced her citizenship and became a French citizen.

During the war should became a counter intelligence operative. She spied on the Germans for the French. She used her music sheets to smuggle German physicians to the French. When her position as a spy became dangerous French military faked her death. For the rest of the war she did shows for the American and British troops.

After the war she became quite famous in Europe and in America. She was offered a lot of money to play in a nightclub which she only agreed to if the audience was not segregated. Everything seemed to be going great until one night at a restaurant she waited for an hour and didn't get served. She wanted to sue the restaurant and verbally attacked a newspaper columnist that was at the restaurant. This newspaper columnist accused her of being a communist and she lost all her support for further shows.

She returned to France and adopted 12 orphans from all around the world. She called them her rainbow tribe. It became very expensive and taxing on her relationship with her husband who finally decided to leave her. She worked very hard to keep her home and her 12 children but eventually lost the Château. In 1963 in March she came back to Washington for the March on Washington and was honored by the people.

In April 1975 she returned to Paris 50 years after the first time she'd arrived in France. On April 8, 1975 at the age of 68 she did her final show. It was considered one of the best shows should ever put on and she said she felt as if she was 19 again. The following evening she suffered a final stroke and never regained consciousness. The Armed Forces gave her a full military funeral with a 21 gun salute for her service in the military during the war.

Her biggest contribution to the theater was her beautiful black body was enjoyed by both black and white audiences around the world.

Minstral show

Blacks and Vaudeville - part 1 from documentary

Minstrel shows were the American Craze. White performers were imitating black people and slaves in their singing and dancing, in the 1840’s for their own entertainment. They put on black faces with white lips. Eventually the African American started their own minstrel show, and did a better job at it. Eventually the whites started the Vaudeville shows, but still had elements of minstrels in it.  

The Coon Songs were the most popular songs of the time. Many whites were led to believe that the blacks led a carefree happy live style, instead hundreds were being lynched. Many of the black performers were always performing in a black context. Even the black performers use the mask of burnt cork up until the 1950’s.