From Spirituals to Hip Hop:
American Music of the African Diaspora
(MUS 113)
SUNY Broome Department of Music
and Theater Arts
Dr. Julia Grella O’Connell

  • Pictures of Liszt

    Franz Liszt was one of the most frequently painted and photographed people of the nineteenth century. Here are just a few images. Why do you suppose this was?  

  • The Waiting is the Hardest Part

    The legend of Dr. Faust — a scholar dissatisfied with his life, who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for renewed youth, strength, and vigor — is an ancient one. The first literary adaptations of the Faust legend began to appear in the sixteenth century, and every age since has reinterpreted the story…

  • Anatomy of An Obsession

    Portrait of Harriet Smithson by Éduard Dubufe, 1830. Are the circumstances surrounding the composition of Symphonie Fantastique a romantic love story? Or a stalker-ish nightmare? Berlioz saw the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson play Ophelia in Hamlet at the Odéon Theatre in Paris in 1830, and immediately fell in love with her. He wrote to her obsessively,…

  • Erlkönig

    Read through the score of “Erlkönig” here. IMSLP00888-Schubert_-_Erlkönig_Op1 Schubert’s great song, sung by the master, German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, with descriptive images. Without the images, however, and without the costumes, set, and stage directions of an opera, the Lieder singer has only his voice, his face, and a very minimal arsenal of physical gesture to portray…

  • What Does A Conductor Do?

    Not this kind of conductor. In music, a conductor’s position is similar to that of the director of a movie or play. The conductor applies his or her overarching conception of the way the music should sound to the piece being performed, based on his/her study and understanding of the score and the composer’s intentions.…

  • The First Four Notes

    This is arguably the most famous passage in western music. It has been likened to the sound of fate knocking at the door, though Carl Czerny, Beethoven’s pupil, maintained that Beethoven was inspired by the song of the yellowhammer, a bird he heard on one of his frequent long walks through the countryside near Vienna.…

  • Who Is Don Giovanni?

    A drug addict, mortally wounded in his Act I, scene I combat with Donna Anna’a father? A gay nightclub owner in the 1980s, chasing men as well as women? A corporate executive who sexually harasses his female employees? Or perhaps the alter ego of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart’s librettist? Is he even a man?  

  • Rage Arias

    In Handel’s 1724 opera Giulio Cesare, the role of Sesto (Sextus) is written for a soprano to sing en travesti, i.e. cross-dressed as a teenage boy. Sesto is the son of Pompey, one of Caesar’s rivals, who has been killed by Caesar’s Egyptian allies. In Act I, Sesto sings a version of a “rage” aria — a…

  • Can Opera Be Woke?

    Verdi’s 1887 opera Otello is based on Shakespeare’s great tragedy Othello, or the Moor of Venice. Othello, a heroic general who is manipulated by his aide-de-camp, Iago, into his tragic events leading to his own destruction, is a role considered by many to be the pinnacle of a classically-trained actor’s career. As such, well into the twentieth century,…

  • Don Giovanni in the Age of #MeToo

    Does this opera still work in the age of #metoo and #TimesUp? Should it still be performed? Some opera companies are trying to re-think their productions, with mixed results. Here are reviews of and press releases for some recent performances. Opera North’s Revived Don Giovanni Misfires in the Age of #MeToo Review: Don Giovanni for the #metoo…

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