This Aria, sung explicitly by Luciano Pavarotti, is one of the most heartfelt and emotional works ever to ever exist. The composer Giacomo Puccini and his musical style heavily rely on the type of the Romantic era. His compositions in this movement departed from classical music and its strictness and rigidness. Most important was the emphasis on emotions, which could be achieved by changing the familiar tonalities and instrumentation.
Puccini was not only an exciting composer but an attractive man. His art was a direct reflection of his life. When he was a young boy, he was so poor that he barely had enough food for dinner. He and his friends split a single fish, a herring, which became the theme and material for his opera La Boheme. He had a great style of writing works that catered to the audiences, had the most extreme characters in all of his operas, and was a master at inventing new ideas. Finally, his arias, namely Nessun Dorma, pushed the performers to their limits. The final lyric of the Aria, "Vincero," reaches a high B and steps down a whole step to A, where he resides for an astonishing amount of time.
Similarly to the Reflection on Brahms' Academic Overture, folk music from homelands and exotic places was also widely included in the romantic era. Puccini himself was one of the most renowned operatic composers ever to exist. Regarding specific types of opera, he mainly followed the verismo style, commedia dell'arte, and utilized the previously spoken folk song. Specifically, in his opera "Turandot," from where this lovely Aria comes, he includes folk songs from China like lullabies, imperial hymns, and the overall pentatonic harmonies that are common to Asian culture.
During the four years, Turandot was composed, China was under the control of a county split into factions- this was called the Warlord era. The Warlord era was in effect well before. After Puccini decided to compose the Turandot opera, unfortunately, due to the government's opinion that the opera did not kindly or accurately portray China, it was banned. This opera was rewritten many times by various composers, but Puccini's version is one of true magnitude.
With excellent composition comes the need for great vocalists and performers. This was a struggle for Puccini's opera. The work required dramatic soloists with power and stamina, but this was not easy to obtain. "Opera companies scour[ed] the globe looking for qualified singers to perform these roles, often resulting in the casting of Western performers who end up being made up in "yellow-face" to fit their Asian roles. Similar to the opposition voiced by the African American community with "black-face," many in the Asian American community have raised their voices in opposition to "yellow-face." As much as opera companies try to present ethnically appropriate productions, finding a qualified Asian dramatic soprano today is nearly impossible." (Nakamura)
About the topics of music and romance, I find the most similarity in the unrequited pain and emotion of Jacques Arcadelt's "Il bianco dolce cigno." When listening to these two pieces, Nessun Dorma and Il bianco dolce cigno, there is imagery that appears without any physical image. Yet, there is still a heartfelt and visual connection to both of these works. This is an essential and unique characteristic of the Romantic era.
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