This is the Final Act of Tosca by Puccini as portrayed in 1900. In the play, Scarpia the old man was trying to make her his even though she had begged him to let her go. But at the last scene she killed him and escaped. During the opera, the performers not only perform their singing but also they have to play in the drama, they express the character emotion throughout their voice and face expressions. At the part that she kills Scarpia, she looks angry, her voice's volume raises high and she sung at a very high pitch. At the same time the orchestra plays to the scene and enhances the mood and dramatics of it all. Then the music is slowed down and lowered, and it became silent to create a scary and tense mood. The harmony of the music flow from each other with the act of the performers. This program music is very dramatic and it was designed to be that way ever since it made its way out of Italy when it started. That is why all of the words are in Italian and the singers are trained to act while singing so they ca enhance the meaning of the words they sing.
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The background music plays an even higher role in this opera than usual it seems like. This is probably because it is more of a TV show format so a stronger volume is needed to achieve the same emotional response as would normally be gotten in a live play. Also, the background here is able to be set up more elaborately that usual. The dialogues are fairly intricate compared to my Rossini play. There sometimes is almost no singing but simply normal dialogue. Good job Anh!
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