Music affects our emotions and has much to do with our everyday lives. Music has always and will be a part of my life. I would have to say that without music there is no life – something is missing in our lives without music. If there were no music society we would only have people speaking to each other, and there would be no entertainment. The form of musical entertainment that I attended was the opera, La Boheme, composed by Giacommo Puccini and Libretto by Giuseppe and Luigi Illica. The opera took place at The New City Opera on November 10, 2001. La Boheme takes place in 1830, 19th century Paris around Christmas time. This opera tells the tragic love story of a young Bohemian, Rodolfo, who finds a love interest in his neighbor, Mimi. The opera consists of an extremely talented cast with the accompaniment of an amazing orchestra. The orchestra was well amplified throughout the Lincoln Center Opera House because it was clearly heard from our upper mezzanine seating. Sunken down below in front of the stage is where I found the opera orchestra. The opera orchestra, which is quite similar to a full symphony orchestra, was starting to warm-up as I entered the “jewelry box”. In the orchestra pit I found aerophones, which included, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, as well as a flute, piccolo, english horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, bass trombone, and a tuba; chordophones, which included the first and second violins, violas, cellos, and a harp; membranophones were made up of the percussion and a timpani. The dynamics range from piano to extreme fortissimo throughout the four act opera. This helped the audience grasp the feelings and emotion that the characters were trying to display. As I was listening to the orchestra I couldn’t help but really focus on the various types of aerophones. They greatly improved the intensity and helped the theme and plot of the story move along s...
