![]() ![]() The choice of a woman who assumes the role of the protagonist possibly derives from the prevailing matriarchal character (more for socio-historical reasons than for residual Africanism) among the black populations of North America. The plot core of the libretto is found in this contrast and in these difficulties, which give a special originality to the extraordinary balance that exists between the non-realistic character of the operatic form and the concrete character of its non-fantastic communication. ![]() Obviously, she goes through difficulties and dangers, which initiate her in the role of a guide capable of enlightening the black community. Treemonisha (whose name derives from the fusion of the words “tree”, tree, and Monisha, the name of the woman who wanted to have a child, found the girl under a tree, and raised her as her own) is the only literate person from the black community, for whom the civil war has brought freedom.Įducated by a white woman in exchange for her parents’ work, Treemonisha, once her training is over, finds, thanks to her education and culture, the necessary strength to overcome the superstitious and magical tendency present in the community. ![]() Two tendencies confront the population: a fetishist, dominated by superstitions and linked to magical culture, ridiculed by Joplin, and another that trusts in the progress achieved through culture, personified by Treemonisha and her parents. The area is inhabited only by blacks, since their white masters have abandoned it after the defeat of the Confederates. The scene takes place on a plantation in Arkansas and in the thick jungle that surrounds it. The action takes place in 1884, when Treemonisha, the protagonist, is eighteen years old. Some precise choreographic indications, drawn up by Joplin, accompany some scenes they are of particular interest for mounting numbers 4, 13 and 27. The work is of closed forms and is made up of twenty-seven numbers. Treemonisha has been defined as “the first great American opera, since it speaks a genuinely American language with the conventional forms of Western opera, such as the overture, the aria, the graceful, the recitative, the choirs and the ballet” (WJ Schafer and J. Of this opera between acts, for which Joplin also wrote the libretto, only the edition for voice and piano survives, edited at the time by the same author, although the manuscript score for orchestra, which Scott Joplin finished, has not been found. One of his most outstanding productions was Treemonisha, from 1911, a work that synthesizes all the ideas that the author had about music in a classical opera. His contract with John Stark ended in 1909. Joplin developed and perfected ragtime with a series of compositions that have become classics of this genre, such as Maple leaf rag, Wall street rag and The entertainer, a theme on which composer Marvin Hamlisch would base himself for the unforgettable soundtrack of the film The Heist (1973), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Then, in 1907, he moved to New York, and in the same year he wrote the instruction manual The School of Ragtime. In 1902, he published and choreographed his first ballet piece, in which numerous ragtime, and in 1903 he published his first opera, guest of A honor. Louis to work with music publisher John Stark. Joplin wanted to succeed as a pianist and as a classical composer for this reason he settled in 1895 in Sedalia and studied music at the George R. In the mid-1980s he undertook a long journey through the American Midwest, and in 1893 he performed at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Scott Joplin received private piano lessons from a very young age. The opera Treemonisha (1911), a mixture of black rhythms, ragtime and Italian opera, is his most ambitious work. His Maple leaf rag (1899) for piano met with immense success. to formal perfection ragtime, pieces with a syncopated rhythm that were very popular in the first decades of the 20th century in the United States, in which a sense of rhythm close to that of jazz can be appreciated. (Texarcana, 1868 – New York, 1917) American pianist and composer.
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