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  4. Opera Aria with VSL Chamber strings

  • Opera Aria with VSL Chamber strings

    I
    I
    last edited
    last edited
    hi folks - this was for a project I've just finished this weekend - last minute addition to the score and I only had 3 days to turn it around so the orchestration's a little sketchy. It's for a violent video game, one of the scenes is set in an opera house so they wanted me to write some cliche'd opera music to play in the background (against violent shooting - usual story so it'll probably be drowned out in explosions). If I'm honest I'm not that knowledgable on Opera so this was a bit of a 'blag' - the lyrics were kindly translated into Italian by Lux from the Northern Sounds forum.

    www.mediathemes.co.uk/mp3/aria_01.mp3
    www.mediathemes.co.uk/mp3/aria_02.mp3

    It's exclusively VSL (French Oboe, perf set pro) - strings are almost all Chamber Strings apart from an 8ths repetition patch from pro (didn't have the BPM I was after in the chamber set), and pizz bass was from the cube strings (found the chamber pizz bass was a bit twangy for this context).

    Would be interested to hear what anyone who knows about 'real' Opera thinks to these [:)]

    Ian
  • M
    M
    Well, I do not only think that you won´t have any problem to sell that as cliched opera stuff but I also think these are pretty nice songs. Who is singing?

    You´ve heard fifth element, right? [[;)]] But there´s of course more than this Donizetti, maybe also Mozart field. But you´re certainly aware of this. I think for a video game it will certainly work very well, especially remembering the "fifth element" scene.
  • I
    I
    > Who is singing?

    young music student called Kyla (Michaela Bloom) - think she's got a great future ahead of her. She did both in 1 take - the whole session only lasted 40mins!

    Musically it was more Verdi influenced than 5th element but I know what you mean about the context - the game designers have obviously seen it [:)]

    Ian
  • G
    G
    I think that will work fine as an opera aria example. The singer carries it (clearly!). The arpeggios in the strings seem a little 'pianistic' -- an opera orchestra more often would use a light sautille, repeating one note of the chord per voice, rather than going up and down like piano figures (though it can be done, and is done from time to time).
  • E
    E
    Man! I love the sound of those strings. VSL Chamber strings have a warmth and realism that no other library I've yet heard seems to capture, and you have used it to great understated effect here. They also seem more 'agile' if that is the right word.

    Very nice work. And the singer is fantastic! Bell-like voice...

    Regards,

    David
  • E
    E
    Yes, this is very nice. I understand that you were operating under a tight deadline so with that in mind this is a job well done indeed.

    Nice soprano, and the chamber strings were perfect for this arrangement.
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