The project “Mini-opera: on the dramaturgy of protest” focuses on the development of a series of short opera concepts that I compose and stage during the development period at the Norwegian Academy of Music. The compositions serve as an exploration of what a mini-opera
can be and where it is positioned on the axis of a broadly understood performative art practise. The mini-operas are brought to life through a transdisciplinary approach, combining music, instrumental and experimental theatre, mixed media and the world of opera with
anthropological perspectives, sociology, and, above all, reflections on the situation of women's rights.
Through the social criticism addressed in the short opera concepts of my artistic research and their transdisciplinary interweaving, I discuss the role and treatment of women in contemporary society. My research uses the figure of the woman as a starting point for understanding the
general development of opera to date, its current institutional challenges, the thematiccharacterological canons of representation and the further exploration of the chosen challenges of women’s rights and the fight against oppression and discrimination.
The project therefore seeks answers to these research questions:
01. The mini-opera and its time frames. How does the shortening of the dramaturgical plot affect the form's content and message and how do the different performance practises influence its final shape? What then is a mini-opera?
02. What is the role and definition of women in the context of the mini-opera research?
03. The composer - social activist or sensitive artist? Why manifesting through art?
The final presentation of my artistic project in Norway will be a performance-installation of the collective of mini-operas created during my research period, accompanied by a panel discussion devoted to the XXI century opera, mini-opera and gender issues.
Martyna Kosecka’s music grows out of her interest in philosophy, physics, linguistics and the mythologies and fables of the world. She is a Polish composer, performer, conductor, curator and researcher in new music. In her projects she works with narratives, microtonality, symbolism and ritualism, by using multidisciplinary solutions. She emphasises the richness of transcultural relationships in art, drawing from the cultures of Iran, Poland and Norway, the countries she has connected through her life.
Since 2023, Martyna holds a Ph.D Research Fellow position at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo (Norway), pursuing her research on mini-opera and the role and treatment of women in contemporary society. Her compositions are published by Donemus Holland. Her music is performed at festivals and concerts around the world, including the International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn, rainy days festival, OstravaDays Festival or Music Biennale Zagreb.
Mini-opera: at the crossroads
During the presentation, I will introduce the general ideas behind the mini-opera project, its origin, its contextualisation and its artistic process together with the established research methods at the crossroads, which I consider to be the crucial starting point of the research period. In this context, I will present my musical practise to date through several examples of already realised works as independent compositions, gestural-movement related investigations and staging/directing attempts. I will outline the questions I am exploring in my project by referring to the first mini-opera project I began working on, the monodrama for soprano and live electronics with live video projections as set design, based on the stories of Iranian women incarcerated in Iranian prisons, documented through the interviews of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. I look forward to discussing the interweaving of women-driven narratives in a short opera form, its thematic strategies and the possibilities of new dramaturgical development.
Additional audiovisual documentation:
- A documentation of the working processes as of the beginning of February 2024 – picture attached
- A link to the performance of monaxiá – music theatre for percussion and electronics
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=GOu00Y2seXc
- A link to the stage realization of Elżbieta Sikora’s on the line
- https://youtu.be/uMnAt4K4qIM
