The Operatic (Double Bill): Admiring La Stupenda and Pavarotti & Me
- Submitting institution
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University of Worcester
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- Somerville_05
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- Performance: a creative project involving public performance and critical reflection
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2020
- URL
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https://padlet.com/dsomerville2/82m8ptt0ov9vyb1q
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- These outputs represent a body of practice research that aimed to identify and describe ‘the operatic’ with reference to the movement of opera singers. The research examined the relationship of autobiography to opera and opera scholarship. Somerville employed queer theory to frame the research and analysis; a framework that also informed the creation of performances for the dissemination of findings. Conducted from the positionality of the opera queen (adding to a body of literature on that identity), the research found that opera queens are subject to the same process of kinaesthetic empathy that singers experience in relation to acquiring the corporeal artistry of operatic performance – ‘the operatic’. The describing of the operatic and the revealing of this process, and subsequent observations in relation to it, are novel contributions to knowledge with the potential to impact approaches to opera training, dramaturgy and critique. It also provides a mode of critique for other performance disciplines, for example, intrinsic to the relationship of opera to Live Art that Pavarotti and Me 2020 begins to delineate. The research gave rise to a unique movement practice, Body Opera, derived from techniques associated with Butoh. The methodology included interviewing singers, presenting workshops, and observing and sketching singers in rehearsal and performance, then developing a series of new Butoh-fu (poetic images used to notate Butoh), translating singers' movements into a vocabulary that allowed non-singing performers to embody the operatic. This methodology created a hitherto undescribed bridge between the position of the spectator and the position of the performer – a methodology with potential beyond the project. The research also began to address issues of the cathartic and reparative potential of opera queening. The embodiment of music and narrative, identification with characters and singers, when combined with autobiographical practice, has implications for studies concerning well-being.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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