Analysis On The Music And Singing Of "Juliet" Arias In Gounod’s Opera Romeo And Juliet

Charles Francois Gounod（1818-1893）is a French composer of the romantic period.He made outstanding contributions to the opera.His work Faust in 1895 initiated the French lyric opera and promoted the popularity of lyric opera.The opera Romeo and Juliet,written in 1867,is based on Shakespeare’s literary masterpiece of the same name.It retains the essence of the original story.And it uses rich and balanced musical lines and with a gorgeous,passionate yet simple creation style in the music,combining music and characters perfectly.This paper makes an in-depth analysis of the music and singing of the Juliet aria in the opera Romeo and Juliet by Gounod.On the basis of the previous research results,and the background of his creation,music noumenon,singing language and singing skills were studied,this paper strives to accurately show the character "Juliet" on the opera stage.The article is divided into four parts.The introduction expounds the purpose and significance of the topic selected,its research status,innovation point,main research contents and research methods of this paper.In the first chapter,the general situation of 19th century French opera,the introduction of Gounod,the characters and synopsis of the opera Romeo and Juliet are studied.In the 19th century,French opera was deeply influenced by the French Revolution,which gave birth to the opera genres with French characteristics,such as grand opera and lyric opera.Understanding Gounod’s life and creation,understanding lyric opera,and knowing the "Juliet" in each period of the opera will help us to dig deeply into the characteristics of Juliet.At the same time,it will resonate with ourselves,and we can strive to accurately reproduce the characters in literary works on the opera stage.The second chapter analyzes Juiet’s classical aria in the opera.Through the in-depth analysis of the overall tonal layout,the characteristics of its harmony,melody and accompaniment,the content expressed by the music melody is further analyzed.The overall tonal layout of the music is mainly focuses on the near relation modulation,which also includes the far relation modulation,the formation of tonal color contrast.In harmonic,Gounod repeatedly used augmented triad modulation and complex harmony sequence to increase the effect of dramatic conflict in music.In terms of melody,Gounod focuses on the characterization of Juliet and her psychology.The two arias are completely different in terms of melody,but the fast ascending and descending of forward appogita,vibrato,and chromaticism and jumping technique are throughout.The third chapter,based on the in-depth analysis of the first and second chapters,further explores the characteristics of the singing language and singing skills of"Juliet" aria.In the part of singing language,based on the characteristics of French,the semivowels and nasal vowels are discussed.Combined with the author’s singing experience,this paper analyzes the tow arias from the five aspects,including gorgeous coloratura,moving lyricism,flexible grace note,the jumping intervals and a combination of emotion and skill,and summarizes the singing skills.In this chapter also put forward to Juliet this role of singing thinking.As far as the author is concerned,her understanding of the character and singing skills in the opera may gradually improve as she continues to grow and become more mature in and psychology maturity.Therefore,the author will continue to explore in her study and singing in the future.