“Lasciatemi morire” o farò “La Finta Pazza”: Embodying Vocal Nothingness on Stage in Italian and French 17th century Operatic Laments and Mad Scenes.
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This music research drama thesis explores and presents a singer’s artistic research process from the first meeting with a musical score until the first steps of the performance on stage. The aim has been to define and formulate an understanding in sound as well as in words around the concept of pure voice in relation to the performance of 17th century vocal music from a 21st century singer’s practice-based perspective with reference to theories on nothingness, the role of the 17th century female singer, ornamentation (over-vocalization) and the singing of the nightingale. The music selected for this project is a series of lamentations and mad scenes from Italian and French 17th century music dramas and operas allowing for deeper investigation of differences and similarities in vocal expression between these two cultural styles.
The thesis is presented in three parts: a Libretto, a performance of the libretto (DVD) and a Cannocchiale (that is, a text following the contents of the Libretto). In the libretto the Singer’s immediate inner images, based on close reading of the musical score have been formulated and performed in words, but also recorded and documented in sound and visual format, as presented in the performance on the DVD. In the Cannocchiale, the inner images of the Singer’s encounter with the score have been observed, explored, questioned, highlighted and viewed in and from different perspectives.
The process of the Singer is embodied throughout the thesis by Mind, Voice and Body, merged in a dialogue with the Chorus of Other, a vast catalogue of practical and theoretical references including an imagined dialogue with two 17th century singers.
As a result of this study, textual reflections parallel to vocal experimentation have led to a deeper understanding of the importance of considering the concept of nothingness in relation to Italian 17th century vocal music practice, as suggested in musicology. The concept of je-ne-sais-quoi in relation to the interpretation of French 17th century vocal music, approached from the same performance methodology and perspective as has been done with the Italian vocal music, may provide a novel approach for exploring the complexity involved in the creative process of a performing artist.
Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Performance in Theatre and Music Drama
at the Academy of Music and Drama,
Faculty of Fine, Applied, and Performing Arts,
University of Gothenburg
ArtMonitor dissertation No 25
ArtMonitor is a publication series from
the Board for Artistic Research (NKU),
Faculty of Fine, Applied, and Performing Arts,
University of Gothenburg
A list of publications is added at the end of the book.
ArtMonitor
University of Gothenburg
Faculty Office of Fine, Applied, and Performing Arts
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PO Box 141
SE 405 30 Gothenburg
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ISBN: 978-91-978477-4-2
Deer, Tigers, Perec and The Everyday - a choreographic approach
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): STELLA MASTOROSTERIOU
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
My research focuses on the interrelations between different types of spaces and the types of movement they encourage or impose. The research is inspired by the writings of writer Georges Perec and informed by concepts and methods from the fields of sociology, anthropology and architecture.
This portfolio supplements the written exegesis of my practice-led research process, which revolves around two interwoven strands / projects, and serves as an analysis of the artistic outcomes and as documentation of the artistic processes. The practice research has been constantly informed by theoretical concepts deriving from an extensive theoretical research, which will be selectively reported. Several smaller projects, experiments and workshop processes that I will briefly delineate in this paper, led into forming two more elaborate projects that I have been developing in the past year and will be more extensively reported in this paper.
The first strand has to do with working in the public space and aims to devise ways of thinking and creating in and for the public space. Under the title I DON’T SEE DEER, I work with observation and writing as a tool for studying everyday life and movement in the public space, in order to highlight existing aspects of the city and propose new site-specific situations. Both the research process and the artistic outcomes were located outside – in the urban space. The process and the outcomes of this part of the research have so far been translated into various forms: a video work, a live performance, a photographic series, a workshop, and most importantly the outline of a flexible way of working that I can bring into different places and groups.
In the second strand, I attempt to incorporate concepts, tools and findings from working in the public space into choreographic research and creation for the stage. While keeping observation of street life as one of my main tools, the practical research here was mainly studio-based. This strand led to the creation of the work WE ARE NOT TIGERS that I presented as my final project for the master.
The two strands did not follow any successive chronologic line. Instead they emerged and were developed concurrently, as autonomous processes that constantly affected and informed one the other, throughout the past year. In this paper though, I will mainly follow the chronological order of how my research path evolved, while linking the practice-led research to the theoretical research.