Classic to Commercial

The Super Bowl is the event for commercial advertisers. Usually, there is no other event that draws more television viewers, and commercial time slots for this event cost millions of dollars. However expensive, advertisers take advantage of the massive audience and create commercials that they think will win over the audience's attention from their surrounding food and friends, and use lots of wit to come up with ads that stick in American's minds.

For the event last year, there are a number of ads of ads that feature classical, some operatic, music. Here are a few with tunes you might recognize:


Verdi Dies Irae:


Beethoven Ode to Joy:


Rimsky-Korsakov Bumblebee:


Rossini Barber of Seville Overture:


Williams Imperial March:

Madama Butterfly

Following the storyline of the classic opera Madama Butterfly, Pjotr Sapegin's animation of the opera seems to include much symbolization that allows the viewer to understand the premise of the entire narrative better. Of course, having not seen the complete opera yet, this is only a hypothesis. In the beginning of this piece, you see the female lead give herself to the love interest. The lover than leaves her behind as he continues his service to the U.S. Navy, and, following the plot of the opera, Madama Butterfly becomes pregnant with the man's child. Here the story deviates though and begins to show my symbolism in the story. When giving birth, the born child is first a fish that transforms into a baby. I am unsure of what the artist was trying to convey with this and other scenes such as the ending 'suicide.' However, after the birth of the child, it is apparent that the umbilical connection of mother and daughter is supposed to represent the strong relationship that the returned sailor severs. In this, there is a strong sense of the hardship that the woman feels when the man takes her daughter that only nonverbal communications can translate.

Castrati: Rock Stars of the Eighteenth Century

During the Middle Ages, there was no form of entertainment to which citizens could focus their attentions. With the invention of the Gutenberg printing press and exploration of knowledge once lost, people began to take pleasure in the arts again. The Renaissance returned people to books, art, and music. In the musical world, the opera took center stage and this became the place to socialize. Great amounts of money, talent, and sacrifice were put into these productions and singers singers underwent a lot of hardship for their craft.

Under the reign of Louis XIV, the group of men known as the castrati became the greatest operatic stars. As prepubescent boys, these singers would endure the painful procedure of castration, so as to achieve the upper levels of the vocal range that would not normally be possible. I think this provokes an important topic: human mutilation for art.

Many artists practice self-mutilation, but in the case of the castrati, the procedure was done on young boys who most likely had no say in whether or not the procedure has done. Most of the boys who undergo the procedure have been offered up by their families in exchange for financial reward (source).

Multimedia Art

The sculpture pictured below is actually not what you think it is. In the style of the baroque era, the face draws on the angelic features of the ancient Greek artists. Even if you know your art history, looks can be deceiving. The cooper sculpture done by the twentieth-century art Juan Carlos Delgado. In fact, its not even just a sculpture; its an installation piece that took over the entire display room.

Although takes the form of a simple bust, it is actually a case for a refrigeration unit. Kept in a below-freezing environment, water molecules form on the surface and create unique ice formations. Depending on heat from the lighting, air circulation, and human interaction, the ice is never the same. It transforms over time, and targets multiple senses, thus making this a piece of multimedia art.

To me this piece in an excellent example of what can be done when old and new worlds collide. The figure has the romantic form, while being controlled by a twentieth-century invention. In the era that sculptures like this were created, refrigeration was an idea that was not feasible, and to apply it to a work of art would never have occurred. Furthermore, the idea of having a something look immutable and then change without showing any signs that it will transform is an idea that will definitely capture an audience's attention.

 

Read an article on the piece at http://www.revistaexclama.com/cuarto-norte/.