MOZART'S DON GIOVANNI OPENS IN PRAGUE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 615.

Task 7. Sharing your impression of a concert.

Task 6. Discussing a music event.

With a partner, make up a dialogue, where you discuss a music event. Remember to use your glossary from Task 5. Have the dialogue printed both in English and in Russian.

Be ready to present the dialogue in class.

— SPEAKING

Give your impression of a concert you have recently attended or seen on TV. Remember to use your glossary from Task 5. These questions can serve as guidelines for your story:

1. What orchestra (group) performed at the concert?

2. What style of music did they perform?

3. How did the music sound?

4. Were the musical pieces well-known, popular, new, etc.?

5. What musical instruments were engaged?

6. Who was the conductor/ the leader?

7. Was the event interesting or enjoyable in your opinion?

8. Was there anything that can be called a “concert event”?

9. What did critics/spectators say about the event? Do you share their point of view?

10. What impression did the event make on you?

& — READING&SPEAKING

Task 1. Read the following information and answer the questions below.

Overture is an instrumental introduction to an opera or other musical or nonmusical dramatic work. Some independent instrumental compositions of the 19th and 20th centuries have also been called overtures by their composers. The first operas, dating from the early 17th century, had no overtures but were introduced by vocalists who summarized the action to follow.

Until the late 18th century, overtures were seldom related to the operas that followed them. The German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck was among the first to use material from his operas in his overtures. The overtures often set the emotional tone of the opera to follow in this manner. The influence of Gluck's ideas is evident in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (1787), wherein music from late scenes is first heard in the overture.

Opera is a drama in which the text is set to music and staged. The texts of operas are sung, with singing and stage action nearly always given instrumental accompaniment. Many operas also feature instrumental interludes (called intermezzi) and dance scenes, even extended ballets that interrupt the action.

• What role does an overture play in an opera?
• How does an opera differ from a drama?

Task 2. You are going to read a text telling a story of Mozart's creating music for an opera Don Giovanni. Look up the pronunciation of the following proper names that you'll come across in the text.

Task 3. Before you read the text, search the Internet and find out:

• who Don Giovanni (a.k.a. Don Juan) was;
• the plot of Don Giovanni;
• who the Commandant is;
• what other works of art are based on the same plot and feature the same characters.

Task 4. Read the text. Then make a detailed plan of the text in your copybook.