The portrayal of the tragic love story: through pictorial and operatic representation

Background/Introduction

My essay is going to look at the portrayal of the tragic love story. I am going to compare a variety of different stories, and look at how significant moments and situations have been conveyed through the use of pictorial representations and musical settings . Each stage of the tragic love story is characterised in a different way, for example the way the person dies, or the ending; I am going to concentrate on the portrayal of affection between the two lovers. I am going to consider the idea of fate and how through the power of love and its enticing nature, a tragic ending is often the outcome. When love is finally reciprocated, abandon, loss or death of one of the lovers will inevitably result in the breaking of their love. Love is the powerful force behind these stories, and its strength to cause wild or unexpected actions often leads to nasty/serious consequences.

[Opera House staircase, Paris, France] (LOC)

Aeneas, whom the Romans believed Romulus and Remus...

Baroque !

I am concentrating on the high-baroque art form of opera, and painters of the first 80-100 years of the 17th century. I am will examine the significance with which/ that both the artist and composer, using their different mediums, places on structure in order to really capture the emotional qualities, not only of the specific moment, but also of the individual characters and the implications this has on the psychological atmosphere created in the story. ..or transferred to the music or opera.

Baroque musical style

Opera was an extremely popular form of music during the baroque period. It stemmed from the 16th century intermedii and Florentine cammarater where operatic experiments were carried out. At the time there was considerable emphasis on the connection between opera and other arts; there was even an academy formed to incorporate both music and poetry 'Academie de Musique et...