Image via Wikipedia Partially because of the economy and partially because of the changing times, opera companies (professional ensembles of instrumentalists, vocalists, set designers, etc. who solely produce operas) have had a difficult time surviving financially. Because of this, there are a few opera companies that have started some innovative programming. If you do not have opportunities to see an opera or other large scale vocal work in person at the local theater or university, I suggest checking out The Met: Live in HD . The Metropolitan Opera , the foremost opera company in the United States , taped various performances in HD and have toured the films at various local movie theaters. Imagine not only seeing and experiencing an opera, but also enjoying it in Dolby Surround Sound! You can find out about the upcoming season here: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_next.aspx The upcoming season includes: Wagner's Das Reingol...

We might think that Madonna or Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus take the cake when it comes to music controversy. You might be hard pressed to find classical composers twerking, but many were controversial in their day.  Miley Cyrus twerking on the Video Music Awards show might seem more burlesque than Beethoven, but many classical composers were controversial in their day. Do you think we would be talking about Lady Gaga as much if she didn't wear a meat dress or what if Madonna hadn't come up with her scandalous book and controversial music videos?  As they say in showbiz, "All publicity is good publicity." Now let's jump back to classical music. As a humanities professor for over a decade I find the irony is that much of the classical music that we listen to today actually was the "popular" or "mainstream" music of their era. Before movie theaters and television and Youtube there were concerts, operas, and private recitals. Were there ...

Cover via Amazon Wagner made several contributions to classical composition, the most important of which were the leitmotif and his use of dissonance. In a nutshell, the leitmotif essentially gives each and every character in Wagner's opera their own specific musical motif, or theme music . Wagner's concept of the leitmotif has translated well into modern film composition. In fact, every film composer knows that he or she must devise a theme (or leitmotif) for the protagonist and antagonist of the film. This musical cue gives the audience an aural "heads up" that a specific character is about to enter the scene or plays an important part. For example, in the movie Jaws , John Williams assigns a particular motif based on minor seconds to the shark. Every time one hears this motif, the audience knows that the shark is out there, somewhere. Stephen Spielberg and John Williams (as well as Tim Burton and Danny Elfman ) have a very unique director/composer relati...