Courses
An approach to dramatic characterization through the development of the actor’s imagination and expressive range, with special emphasis on the ensemble and projection techniques of the lyric stage.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.
Area: P, Y
Develops physical awareness, movement skills, and integration of musical and spatial concepts. Includes introductory dance technique, vocabulary and patterns. Active studies in Dalcroze eurhythmics, choreography, characterization and styles provide further abilities useful in opera.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.
Area: P, Y
Graduate Acting students will learn how to decode the important information in each script, libretto, and score in order to translate it into vivid performances. Art (and therefore acting) may be subjective, but everyone can cultivate the skills required to become a better singer-actor. The aim of this class is to empower graduate students to make strong artistic choices by demystifying character, style, and rhetoric.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.
Area: P, Y
Who gets to make and to experience opera? Opera in Action students will explore these questions and pose their own, using a short opera performance as the catalyst for both classroom and community engagement. Students will work with instructors from various fields to devise activities and foster conversations around music, theatre, and performance. Emphasis will be placed on developing each individual student’s musical/dramatic skills in the context of community. Both Voice and Music Education students with a singing background are encouraged to apply.
Area: P, Y
Individual and group work focusing on language, diction, and the vocal line as it relates to instrumentation and musical texture. Students will explore composers’ stylistic, linguistic, and musical choices as the basis for crafting informed interpretations of operatic works in various styles, including 21st-century repertoire. Focus may include both individual arias and role preparation. This course also includes a career overview that encompasses auditions, management, singing in Europe, and professional expectations and standards.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.
Area: P, Y
A course to develop new operatic works by Peabody composers in close collaboration with vocalists. Study includes investigations of vocal function and use; an overview of literature and notational practices; exercises in writing for solo voice and instruments; libretto development; scene improvisation; and discussion of best practices for collaboration. Up to five composers from the fall semester will be chosen to write a 15-minute scene or one-act opera for full production in the spring. **For composers, participation in the fall semester is prerequisite to the spring.** The course is open to composers at the senior-year level or above. Junior-year composers may be enrolled by permission. Singers are enrolled via opera diagnostic auditions at the beginning of the year. Instrumentalists are also invited to participate for credit in both semesters.
Area: P, Y
A course to develop new operatic works by Peabody composers in close collaboration with vocalists. Study includes investigations of vocal function and use; an overview of literature and notational practices; exercises in writing for solo voice and instruments; libretto development; scene improvisation; and discussion of best practices for collaboration. Up to five composers from the fall semester will be chosen to write a 15-minute scene or one-act opera for full production in the spring. **For composers, participation in the fall semester is prerequisite to the spring.** The course is open to composers at the senior-year level or above. Junior-year composers may be enrolled by permission. Singers are enrolled via opera diagnostic auditions at the beginning of the year. Instrumentalists are also invited to participate for credit in both semesters.
Area: P, Y
An introduction to dramatic characterization as it relates to and is practiced on the Opera stage.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.
Area: P, Y
Graduate Acting students will learn how to decode the important information in each script, libretto, and score in order to translate it into vivid performances. Art (and therefore acting) may be subjective, but everyone can cultivate the skills required to become a better singer-actor. The aim of this class is to empower graduate students to make strong artistic choices by demystifying character, style, and rhetoric.
Area: P, Y