Similarities between Chinese and European Opera - Essay Example

There are similarities between Chinese and European opera as represented in our samples “The Reunion” and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro". Each tells a story in its own way, and each includes widely divergent volumes and rifts. Both rely upon dramatic effect as the underpinnings of the music. Although a more thorough analysis may reveal deeper similarities, for our purposes, they seem to end there. There are many more differences between our samples “The Reunion” and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro".

The Chinese opera is far more vocal. It uses silence for dramatic effect and implements near spoken word vocals in some places. The European sample is much more musical than vocal. In fact, it implements no lyrics at all. The story is European opera is more implicit. It used no white space but relies on variant volumes and rhythms to communicate tone. Some of these similarities are seen in other musical forms especially modern music. There are similarities between in our samples “The Reunion” and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro" and the music I listen to regularly.

The tambourines of the Chinese sample remind me of “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” by Cher. The grandiose strings of the European sample are reminiscent of System of a Down. Nevertheless, the differences are more marked.Differences between our samples “The Reunion” and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro" and the music I listen to regularly exist. In the music I listen to on a regular basis, vocals are usually used to imply messages sort of midway between the explicit and implicit messages of our samples, and the rhythms are probably less variant than either sample.

These differences are the most pronounced on first glance, but on deep analysis, others may be delineated. Our comparison and contrast included that between each cultural sample plus the similarities and differences between these samples and the music I listen to regularly. Here, Chinese opera was represented by “The Reunion” while European opera was represented by Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro" for our analysis. A detailed analysis revealed unexpected nuances between operas of these two broad cultural categories.

Although popular opinion dictates that somehow operatic music is boring, upon closer observation we see the beauty exemplified in more traditional music.