UNIVERSITY OF DAR-ES-SALAAM

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE ARTS
COURSE NAME: FUNDAMENTALS OF THEATRE ARTS
COURSE CODE: CA109
LECTURE DAY AND TIME: MONDAY 14:00-17:00
COURSE INSTRUCTURER: DR. JUMA BAKARI
TASK: GROUP 09 PRESENTATION ON OPERA
PARTICIPANT:
S/N NAME OF PARTICIPANT REG. NO SIGNATURE

01 MASHAKA ISAACK 2022-04-06434

02 VICTOR SEVELINI NGURURU 2022-04-10346

03 MICHAEL ELISHAMA 2022-04-07424

04 PATRICK PETER PATRICK 2022-04-11004

05 RAJAB VALLER 2022-04-13185

06 IRENE MASOUD SEIF 2022-04-12055

QN; Your fellow students who are studying engineering and law have requested you to
enlighten them on various forms of theatre arts. with examples prepare a presentation that
describe the form of theatre that has been allocated to your group.
Opera is one of theatre performances in the world. The question will be attempted by
introducing what an opera is, key important terms of opera, the people and apartments
responsible to bring opera on stage and lastly the different kinds or types and voices found in
opera. To see and listen to kinds and voices of opera, YouTube is great social media source to
refer too. Opera refers to a staged drama et entirely to music, made up of vocal pieces with
instrumental accompaniment and usually with orchestral overtures and interludes. Orchestral
overtures are a piece of music played at the beginning of an opera to open the show and
prepare the audience what is to come whereas interludes are periods between the opera
perfomances.in some opera, the music is continuous throughout the act, in others it is broken
up to pieces separated by spoken dialogue or singing-like speech (recitative).this performance
can of course be given concert performances, and can be semi-staged such that it allows use
of costumes, decoration and movement( Williams ).opera performance has been practiced
since 17th century but mostly acknowledged in the 19th century in many places of the world,
from Italy to London, Asia and some parts of Africa in later century. And up to date operas
are made at large all around the world. Famous known operas are The Barber of Seville (Il
barbiere di Siviglia) by Gioachino Rossini, 1816, The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di
Figaro) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1786 and Aida by Giuseppe Verdi set in the old
kingdom of Egypt 1871.

Many individuals and departments are behind the opera. First is the writer who is responsible
of writing the original story, then comes the librettist, a specialist who puts the story into
form that is usually poetic verse (the form is called libretto). the composer then sets the
libretto to music. On the other hand, architects and acousticians will be designing the opera
house in a way that there is backstage area, the stage, a space to accommodate large audience
and the orchestra. The director of opera comes in as one of important individuals who will
work close with designers, scene painters, costume experts and lighting experts and together
with the conductor who is a person to conduct the orchestra, opera company and to interpret
ensemble works before the orchestra. Lastly the performers who are the opera singers,
specialized and trained intensively in music and theatre.

Opera in dived into mainly four types namely the belcanto, buffa, seria and grand opera. The
belcanto opera is kind of opera that emphasizes beautiful singing voices where a singer and
an orchestra person work together to deliver the performance (Bel Canto Choir Vilnius,
2013). second, opera buffa is one which is fun in nature and known to be lighthearted in its
verses for instance an opera called Barbara of Seville by Rossini. The opera seria is an
opposite to opera buffa.it involves seriousness and tragic performance in its singing
(fortheopera, 2009). last is the grand opera, filled with spectacular costumes and sets, often
include ballet scenes and tends to run longer that all other kinds of opera
(WichitaGrandOpera, 2017). in these different styles, each singer adapts a particular voice
depending on the character. Singers may act as mother or father, an old person, a leader and
many more hence these voices are groped to female and male.

Classification of opera voices is such that Soprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto are names
of opera voices to female characters. Soprano is the highest female singing voice. It is played
by the lead female characters where contralto is lowest female voice mostly played for older
characters like the old person entitled with great wisdom. the middle voice it is contralto
where mothers, caretakers and villainesses sing in this.

The male voices are Tenor, countertenor, baritone and bass. The highest of male voice in the
opera is countertenor and is close to tenor which is also highest male voice played by singers
who act the character with romantic interest though not always. Baritone is the middle
singing voice performed for character of a husband, caretaker and villains. Lastly, bass voice
is lowest of all male voices, for characters who are old. Opera performance are known to last
anywhere between 1.5 to 5 hours where the grand opera tends to have more time than the
rest. Audiences have to pay money for ticket to go see an opera.

Therefore, the opera is one bigger and sophisticated orchestra.it has no amplification devices
as in music, rather every note is sung live with the performers, orchestra and audience under a
big hall house.
Reference

Williams, B. (2006). On Opera. Yale university

Weinstock, H (2022, December 23). Opera. https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music

WichitaGrandOpera. (2017, January 19). Turandot - Wichita Grand Opera - COMPLETE.

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHAzkgAIrtk

leopmoza. (2011, December 18). Il Opera dalla grande Buffa (from “Mozart VS Mozart”, by
FFortissimo) (www.ffortissimo.be). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=aiNDcJ7x30w

Bel Canto Choir Vilnius. (2013, November 5). Hijo de la Luna - Bel Canto Choir Vilnius.
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI-iFAASh4w

fortheopera. (2009, October 18). Florian Gassmann OPERA SERIA, Alexandrina

Pendatchanska as Stonatrilla. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0evKSG3-SI