Steph Schaffer

Although I have not been to many Broadway shows, my grandparents were actors and I have always had some type of appreciation for Broadway and acting. After watching the Broadway videos on the Angel Stage Door blog, I appreciate Broadway even more now then I have before.   The voices of every singer were so beautiful and graceful, which made them very easy to listen to. I’ve realized they do not need to have much going on in the background to put on a good show if they have a good voice. Even though they put on a good show, I found that the ones with people just singing with nothing else going on in the background was very boring to me. For example, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” videos were boring to me because the videos were just someone on stage singing with nothing else happening. However, the videos that had lots of dancing and fun things going on were more entertaining to me and kept me watching (Meet Me in St. Louis). I also liked the MAME co...

            The opera Carmen, composed by Georges Bizet, took place in Seville, Spain around the 1820’s.   Carmen is a story of a young woman who seduces a solider, Don Jose, who was not interested in her the way other men usually are. Carmen is arrested after her and her ladies cause a fight in the square.   However, Don Jose sets Carmen free and is soon arrested for doing so. After being released from jail, Don Jose realizes he is in love with Carmen and goes to her only to find that she has fallen in love with a bullfighter, Escamillo. After Carmen tells Don Jose that she does not want to go with him, he feels so betrayed that he stabs Carmen and regrets it right after he kills her.             The opera show Carmen has been critical to the chronology of opera. The opera was considered to be a “realism opera” using realism methods, unlike most o...

Pjotr Sapegin’s “Madama Butterfly” animation was an extremely powerful stop-motion animation. Although stop-motion is difficult to achieve, this animation was very well put together. The story starts of with a woman and her lover.   They sleep with each other and create wonderful memories together.   The woman is so content and in love with her man.   However, he man sails back out into the water, leaving her behind.   Her love for him is so strong that she waits for him, with his hat and all.   As she awaits his return, she realizes she is pregnant and soon delivers her baby all by herself.   She raises the baby on her own while waiting for her love to return.   When she sees him arrive she is extremely happy, until she realizes he is pulling up with his new wife and all of their children.   The man literally rips her child away from her. The woman’s life begins to fall apart and she commits suicide by physically taking herself apart.   The...