Opera

Digital systems for live multimodal performance in Death and the Powers

by Peter Torpey

published in 'International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media'

The opera Death and the Powers by Tod Machover tells the story of a man, Simon Powers, who evades death by... more The opera Death and the Powers by Tod Machover tells the story of a man, Simon Powers, who evades death by transferring his essence into his environment as his corporeal body dies. To realize the effect of the theatrical environment coming alive as the main character, the Opera of the Future research group at the MIT Media Lab developed new technologies and control systems for interactive robotics, sound and visuals in live theatre. A core component of this work is the technique of Disembodied Performance, a method and associated technological infrastructure that translates the live performance of the offstage opera singer into multimodal representations onstage. The author was principally responsible for the control architecture and Disembodied Performance software implementation, as well as the design of the visual language used to represent Simon Powers. These digitally-enabled elements were created in order to support the story of the opera and facilitate the process of crafting and rehearsing the staged experience. This article reflects on the dialogue between the design of the technological systems in conjunction with the development of the story and scenography of the opera. Several design principles are presented for the role of new technologies in digital opera and music-driven performance contexts that arose during the course of this work. The discussed methods of cuing, authoring, organizing and collaborating suggest an approach for scoring the multimedia elements of digitally augmented stagecraft.

Eine „glückliche Anwendung historischer Resultate auf die Oper“? Zur Verwendung alter Musik in Adolf Sandbergers Oper Ludwig der Springer (1895)

by Christian Thomas Leitmeir

Mozart im Zentrum. Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Manfred Hermann Schmid, edited by Klaus Aringer & Ann-Katrin Zimmermann (Tutzing, 2010), 381–407

Adolf Sandberger's first opera Ludwig der Springer (1895) displayed the synergy between musicology and composition,... more Adolf Sandberger's first opera Ludwig der Springer (1895) displayed the synergy between musicology and composition, which was hailed by critics as a 'successful application of historical research to opera'.
In two places Sandberger incorporated old music into the otherwise Wagnerian adaptation of a medieval Thuringian legend: a troubadour song by Guillaume of Aquitaine (II/1) and a work modelled after Lassus (III/1).Ascertaining the sources for these allegedly historicising elements, the essay disproves Sandberger's claims of music-historical veracity and establishes the deeper reasons behind the curious discrepancy between historicist posture and Wagnerian music drama.

The Architecture of Arcadia: Quinault, Lully, and the Complicit Spectator of the Tragedie en Musique

by Alison CALHOUN

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH STUDIES; DEC, 2011, 33 2, p114-p126, 13p.

Most analyses of the Arcadia of the Ancien regime interpret pastoral politically as a place built in contrast to... more Most analyses of the Arcadia of the Ancien regime interpret pastoral politically as a place built in contrast to court life, a contrast that manifested itself iconographically as pastoral scenes built in the foreground of palatial backdrops, or Arcadian, garden-like courtyards. But, in the context of theatre, the scenography of pastoral was also constructed as a peaceful, verdant setting that opposed the dangers and marvels of mythological places and characters put into motion by machines. Even though Arcadia was a rather artificial version of a simple garden or forest, it was nevertheless part of a visual tradition that was understood as a possible world. For Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptiste Lully, the pastoral space was key to harmonizing not only the singing, but also the ever-increasing use of machines and spectacular scene changes of early musical tragedy. Thanks to its familiar topoi, the pastoral setting (evident in didascalies, iconography, and within the verses of Quinault's libretti) created visual cues that helped forge a complicit spectator for this new form of tragedy, promoting credibility, and inciting specific emotions. Most importantly to the history of theatrical reception, the balance between the familiarity of pastoral and the strangeness of mythology encouraged the spectator to redefine the limits of aesthetic distance to include greater degrees of artificiality and fiction.

A realização de óperas como campo interartístico: dramaturgia, performance e interpretação de ficções audiovisuais

by Marcus Mota

Review / Mélanie Traversier, Gouverner l’opéra. Une histoire politique de la musique à Naples, 1767-1815

by Etienne Jardin

Transposition. Musique et sciences sociales, 2012 (2)

Sédu* dans le Théâtre-Italien

by Etienne Jardin

published in 'Transposition. Musique et sciences sociales', 2012 (2)

L’ouvrage dirigé par Jean Mongrédien – Le Théâtre-Italien de Paris. 1801-1831 – et le site internet qui l’accompagne... more L’ouvrage dirigé par Jean Mongrédien – Le Théâtre-Italien de Paris. 1801-1831 – et le site internet qui l’accompagne permettent de mener des recherches sur les mots utilisés dans les périodiques du début du XIXe siècle pour rendre compte de l’activité de cette institution lyrique parisienne. Une recherche « sédu* » donne pour résultats 424 occurrences de mots commençant par ces quatre lettres (séducteur, séductrice, séduire, séduite, séduisant…). On s’intéressera à l’usage global qui est fait de ces termes dans le corpus réuni par Jean Mongrédien (fréquence, définition des termes et des objets qu’ils qualifient) avant d’aborder trois thèmes majeurs qui apparaissent au cours de leur analyse : la place de la séduction dans les livrets des œuvres jouées au Théâtre-Italien ; la séduction des interprètes ; et celle opérée par la musique.

The volume edited by Jean Mongrédien, Le Théâtre-Italien de Paris. 1801-1831, and the website which accompanies it, make it possible to search for words used in periodicals which recounted the goings-on of this theater in the early 19th century. A search for “sedu*” results in 424 hits of words beginning with these four letters (seducer, seduce, seduced, seductive...). The present article looks at the overall use of these terms in the body of work collected by Jean Mongrédien (their frequency, definition of the terms and the objects they qualify), followed by an investigation of three major themes that emerge from this analysis: seduction’s role in the printed programs of the works played at the Théâtre-Italien, the musicians’ seduction, and that of the music.

Amar ou partir. Notas sobre a política de Dido and Aeneas

by João Pedro Cachopo

Published in "Didi and Aeneas / Henry Purcell", TNSC, 2009 [in Portuguese].

Notas sobre a actualidade do caso Wagner

by João Pedro Cachopo

Published in "Obras de Richard Wagner", TNSC, 2008 [in Portuguese]

Review: Adamo's Little Women

by Kendra Leonard

Published in Notes Notes 68.1 (September 2011)

Review of Houston Grand Opera's recording of Mark Adamo's Little Women Review of Houston Grand Opera's recording of Mark Adamo's Little Women

An exploration into the use of improvisation, harmonic substitution, text-setting, word-painting and time-signature implications in French recitative, 1680-1733.

by Alex McCartney

Enea nel Lazio, opera riformata: prima l'azione, poi le parole

by Luca Rossetto Casel

Relazione presentata al XIV Colloquio di Musicologia del «Saggiatore musicale» (Bologna, 20 novembre 2010)

Seconda opera della stagione di carnevale 1760 del Teatro Regio di Torino, l'Enea nel Lazio composta da Tommaso... more Seconda opera della stagione di carnevale 1760 del Teatro Regio di Torino, l'Enea nel Lazio composta da Tommaso Traetta su libretto di Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi costituisce un momento significativo nell’àmbito dei tentativi di riforma del teatro musicale di metà Settecento. Cronologicamente collocata in un periodo – incastonato tra gli anni trascorsi a Parma e a Vienna – che vede il compositore intensificare la propria attività nella capitale sabauda, l’opera s’inscrive in un più ampio progetto di riforma portato avanti dal Teatro Regio e rappresenta uno snodo fondamentale nell’àmbito delle sperimentazioni attuate dal compositore.
Su una struttura conforme alle convenzioni allora vigenti in Italia, Enea nel Lazio innesta soluzioni drammaturgicamente innovative, organizzate in una forma spettacolare coerente e originale. Il ripensamento spregiudicato del modello teatrale metastasiano, lo scarto fra la scansione in scene e lo sviluppo del dramma, il fluido avvicendamento di forme musicali chiuse e aperte, l’impiego della danza in funzione narrativa, il ricorso a una scenotecnica raffinatamente elaborata convergono a dare vita a una drammaturgia incentrata sul primato non della musica né delle parole; bensì dell’azione.

V&A Online Journal

by Alice Dolan

'Peter Grimes' and Leonard Bernstein: an English fisherman and his influence on an American eclectic

by Helen Smith

Published in 'Tempo', vol. 60, issue 235, January 2006

The Ecstasies of Saint Teresa: The Saint as Queer Diva from Crashaw to Four Saints in Three Acts

by Corinne Blackmer

Rhetoric as a Guide to Vocal Timbre and Sonority in Italian Recitative

by Alan Maddox

7. SINGING TO THE EAR AND TO THE HEART: PERFORMANCE PRACTICE AND THE RHETORICAL TRADITION IN EARLY AND MID-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY …

by Alan Maddox

Mythologie in Musicis: Karlheinz Stockhausen's Licht

by Vicent Minguet

Published in 'Sul Ponticello' 23 (2011)
http://www.sulponticello.com

This paper presents a study of musical symbolism and iconology in the seven operas of the Licht cycle by Karlheinz... more This paper presents a study of musical symbolism and iconology in the seven operas of the Licht cycle by Karlheinz Stockhausen, which is based upon a critical evaluation of their content and structure. The analysis is carried out through an exploration of the complex relationships between symbols and icons belonging to the various parts of the cycle. Its focal point is to highlight the richness of the connections that are established through the different musical, theatrical, visual and cultural elements, as well as to delineate the many implicit meanings and functions they serve within such an enormous operatic cycle.

Il teatro musicale fantastico tedesco fra Ottocento e Novecento, in Drammaturgie musicali del Novecento. Teorie e testi, atti del convegno internazionale di studi Empoli, 14-16 ottobre 2004, a cura di Marco Vincenzi, LIM, Lucca 2007

by Anna Ficarella

"Opera en abyme: The Prodigious Ritual of Korngold's Die tote Stadt," Cambridge Opera Journal 22:2 (2011), 115-46.

by William Cheng

Tosca's prism: three moments of western cultural history

by Deborah Burton