Transforming The Operatic Voice

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

‘Transforming The Operatic Voice’ was a practice-based project that explored radical interventions to operatic practice by critically examining the relationship between opera and pop singing styles. Through a mixed-methods approach involving empirical, theoretical, and artistic research, the project explored the voice’s role in issues of motivation, class, and identity in audience engagement with opera and highlighted several research findings in this area including:
1)A suite of practical techniques for opera singers to perform with amplification, including both technical devices (laryngeal placement, musical range, and formant quality) and the development of effective linguistic tools to communicate this in the context of UK opera scene practices.
2)The discovery that many of the traditionally perceived ‘off-putting’ elements of operatic singing such as wide vibrato are actually ubiquitous across a range of genres, with the specific formant (i.e. ‘tone colour’) formation needed for opera singers to project over an orchestra being the key point of difference.
3)A more nuanced understand of the importance in performance practice between rhythm (i.e. ‘feel’) and phonation across genres. These are areas that opera singers often find difficult to alter due to specific – and sometimes harmful – ideologies that are a key part of much operatic vocal training in the UK.
The central objectives of this project were: a) to explore the complex space between operatic and popular music singing styles in order to reconsider the operatic voice, and b) foster the development of innovative approaches and techniques for performing and composing opera. The project resulted in publications including a major new opera performed at the Royal Albert Hall with a cast of over 2,000 young people, and creative and technical consultancy for projects with the Royal Opera, English National Opera, and BBC.
The project was funded by The Leverhulme Trust.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/01/201/06/23

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