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
Acting for Opera is a laboratory for the complete singer-actor. The canon of music-theatre continues to expand, and each genre of music has its own evolving style of performance. As such, students will practice working both from the outside-in (using the face, body, and voice to express ideas and emotions) and from the inside-out (using their imaginations as fuel for strong artistic choices). Readings include historic and contemporary discourses on both acting and rhetoric. Students will prepare monologues, dialogue, and recitative scenes assigned by the instructor, and will be graded upon their individual preparation as well as their ability to work in an ensemble.
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
This course develops singers’ physical awareness, movement skills, and integration of musical and dramatic content. Areas of study include the dynamics of stage space, gesture as a product of characterization, and knowledge of basic dance forms for the opera stage. Processes draw from somatic studies and Jaques-Dalcroze eurhythmics.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.;Completion of Movement 1 required, PY.540.513[C].
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
An advanced course on acting for the Opera stage. This class counts towards the Vocal Literature course requirement.The purpose of this class is to review, strengthen and apply concepts of stagecraft, acting, and character analysis to the advanced singer interested in singing on the Opera stage. This will be done through “Role Preparation”, working exclusively in a given role in an opera. By the end of the semester the student will be able to create from the music and text of the opera role an entire, complete, practical character and performance us.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.
Area: P, Y
An introduction to acting for the Opera stage.
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
Bringing an Opera Aria to performance level requires a great deal of 'sleuthing', i.e. detective work. We are who we are in every day life simply by being a living, breathing ever-evolving human being. Our reactions, our personality are ever revealing themselves simply by interacting with the situations and people we encounter. Arias are, however, stories told in a moment in time, in a particular situation that is 'pre-scribed' by a librettist and composer. It is our challenge to find out what the intention of the creators was, what the message to deliver is and what experience brings us to this point. Research, dissection, pondering, in a sense, working backwards to understand the components of an aria will bring us to a point of delivering the message - hopefully - that the team had in mind. Vocal color, word stress, phrasing (both musical and literary) all contribute to a meaningful expression of a character's reaction to a particular situation at a point in time.
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.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of previous course required, PY.540.541[C].
Area: P, Y
Prerequisite(s): Open to Voice majors only.
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
An advanced course on acting for 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