Die Aufführung der »Teofane« am 13. 9. 1719 war nicht einfach ein siebenstündiges festliches Opernereignis anlässlich einer Fürstenhochzeit, sondern Teil einer umfangreichen Inszenierung Augusts des Starken, der Macht, Reichtum und Bedeutung der sächsischen Krone in gebührender Weise zur Geltung bringen wollte. Dieses Dramma per musica mit Intrigen und dem lieto fine wird nun durch mehrere Kunstgriffe in Zusammenhang mit dem sächsischen Hofzeremoniell gebracht. Die Aufführung wurde einbezogen in die vom 2. September bis 30. September währenden Hoffestlichkeiten sowie in die Planetenfeste, die vom 10. September (Apoll gewidmet), 12. September (Mars), 15. September (Jupiter), 18. September (Luna), 20. September (Merkur), 23. September (Venus) bis zum 26. September (Saturn) stattfanden. Die Premiere der »Teofane« am 13. September war beziehungsreich nach dem Marsfest am 12. September plaziert. Dort preist der Kriegsgott das Paar, aus dessen Verbindung weitere Helden entstehen werden. Mars wird ein Turnier ausrufen, zu dem längst vergangene glorreiche Helden, die Manen Heinrichs von Sachsen, erscheinen werden. Und er erinnert daran, dass Kurfürst Johann Georg III. bei der Befreiung Wiens vom Türkischen Belagerungsheer 1683 den Österreichern wichtige militärische Hilfe gewährt hat. Auch der deutliche Verweis auf eine Liebeshochzeit, gleichermaßen im Stück wie im Leben, geht über die vom Affekt bestimmte Handlung des Dramma per musica hinaus. Liebe als Grundlage der Ehe zwischen dem Kurprinzen und der Kurprinzessin war eine weitere Botschaft des höfischen Festes, die es zu betonen galt. Deshalb wurde die Reprise der »Teofane« zwei Tage vor dem »Venusfest« angesetzt.

This thesis explores the relationship between sound, word and image as mediated by technology. It is situated within the discipline of ‘performance art’ or ‘live art’ – both terms that I have come to challenge in my work because they fail to encompass the contemporary developments within this expanding field. My research pays particular attention to the technological conditions that affect contemporary performative practice. It investigates these conditions with special regard to the interrelated themes of improvisation, composition and exhibition, proposing constellations between performer, instrument, text and stage. This written component of my practice-based Ph.D follows the exhibition Melech at the Stanley Picker Gallery in January 2014, which brought together the key elements of my research over the course of four years. These manifested themselves as a triple-­‐screen video projection, a 45-­‐minute live performance, a photographic installation and the vinyl LP Melech. The following text focuses on the central working method of my practice, which I call the ‘sonic image’. I define the sonic image as an effect created when sound and gesture are added to words. My key area of investigation is the ‘instant feedback’ that occurs when the voice mediates text using technology. As a vocal performer working within a visual art context, my concern is with the sound of the spoken/sung word during a performance. During the course of my research I have developed the term ‘OpeRaArt’ to describe work that results from the performance of lyrical text. OpeRaart resonates with the Italian word opus (meaning ‘work’), ‘the opera’ being the performance constructed around the libretto (the opera’s text). In order to demonstrate the dynamic interaction of visual, sonic and semantic elements that govern the performance of language, I chose to make the spelling of the word OpeRaArt changeable – by shifting the capital letters. This reflects one of my major research findings: that visual, sonic and semantic elements have shifting statuses in the vocal delivery of words during a performance. Sometimes the visual element shapes/overrides the sonic, and at other times the sonic shapes/overrides the visual. The semantic element, rather than preceding sonic and visual elements as the ‘guarantor’ of the work’s content, is seen as developing from them. By making links between random fragments of language and signs, my research has enabled me to see how meaning can be generated without assuming that the sonic and the visual elements are directly answerable to a semantic one. Rather, the content surfaces through a constant migration between all three elements. 1920s and 1950s avant-­‐garde devices have strong links to methods and principles developed in my work. Although I consider these methods within their various historical contexts, I am primarily interested in their relation to the three axes of performance that dominate my method: improvisation, composition and exhibition. This triangulated way of thinking about performance guides the structure of my thinking, the thesis being concerned with how the core of an effective artwork will always involve oscillation between these three axes.

Volume 3 contains one sound cassette and one videorecording. / Volume 2 includes bibliographic references. / 3 v. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Music Studies, 1995?

This thesis explores the impact of Mercadante’s operas in France during the 1820s and 1830s. The study covers a period from the French premiere of Elisa e Claudio in Paris (1823) up to the period immediately preceding the worldpremiere of Il giuramento (Milan, La Scala, 11 March 1837), which is traditionally regarded as the first of Mercadante’s ‘reform’ operas and the watershed of his mature style. Modern music historians and early biographers have suggested that Mercadante’s encounter with French operatic conventions was the trigger for his ‘reform’ impulse, which the composer himself acknowledged in one of his most famous letters. As a contribution to discussion of Mercadante’s stylistic developments, I examine a number of case studies which probe the French reception of his early output. Chapter 1 provides a historical survey of French critical assessments of Mercadante in the nineteenth century, revealed in the ongoing discourse of the time regarding Italian opera in France. Chapter 2 explores the critical reception of Elisa e Claudio, staged at the Théâtre Italien in 1823. Chapter 3 studies the process of transfer that brought about the transformation of Elisa e Claudio into the pasticcio Les Noces de Gamache, produced for the Théâtre de l’Odéon by the composer Luc Guénée in 1825. Chapter 4 reconstructs Mercadante’s sojourn in Paris and the genesis of I briganti during the 1835-36 season at the Théâtre Italien. Chapter 5 frames the Italian performances of I briganti and the related revision process in the context of Mercadante’s French experience. In focusing on the intertwined responses of Franco-Italian music criticism, this study of Mercadante’s early operas shows the value of the study of pan-European criticism and of cultural transfer as a larger framework within which to locate studies of Mercadante’s developments in style and aesthetics.

Die Aufführung der »Teofane« am 13. 9. 1719 war nicht einfach ein siebenstündiges festliches Opernereignis anlässlich einer Fürstenhochzeit, sondern Teil einer umfangreichen Inszenierung Augusts des Starken, der Macht, Reichtum und Bedeutung der sächsischen Krone in gebührender Weise zur Geltung bringen wollte. Dieses Dramma per musica mit Intrigen und dem lieto fine wird nun durch mehrere Kunstgriffe in Zusammenhang mit dem sächsischen Hofzeremoniell gebracht. Die Aufführung wurde einbezogen in die vom 2. September bis 30. September währenden Hoffestlichkeiten sowie in die Planetenfeste, die vom 10. September (Apoll gewidmet), 12. September (Mars), 15. September (Jupiter), 18. September (Luna), 20. September (Merkur), 23. September (Venus) bis zum 26. September (Saturn) stattfanden. Die Premiere der »Teofane« am 13. September war beziehungsreich nach dem Marsfest am 12. September plaziert. Dort preist der Kriegsgott das Paar, aus dessen Verbindung weitere Helden entstehen werden. Mars wird ein Turnier ausrufen, zu dem längst vergangene glorreiche Helden, die Manen Heinrichs von Sachsen, erscheinen werden. Und er erinnert daran, dass Kurfürst Johann Georg III. bei der Befreiung Wiens vom Türkischen Belagerungsheer 1683 den Österreichern wichtige militärische Hilfe gewährt hat. Auch der deutliche Verweis auf eine Liebeshochzeit, gleichermaßen im Stück wie im Leben, geht über die vom Affekt bestimmte Handlung des Dramma per musica hinaus. Liebe als Grundlage der Ehe zwischen dem Kurprinzen und der Kurprinzessin war eine weitere Botschaft des höfischen Festes, die es zu betonen galt. Deshalb wurde die Reprise der »Teofane« zwei Tage vor dem »Venusfest« angesetzt.

This interdisciplinary practice-based thesis interrogates the term ‘operatic’ with particular reference to movement. It thereby aims to extract operatic movement from the practice of opera singers and investigate ways to transfer ‘operaticness’ into the bodies of non-singing performers. The research uses Butoh as a model for a non-foundational movement practice (termed herein ‘Body Opera’) and embodiment techniques derived from Butoh, to achieve this transfer of kinaesthetic information. The research was undertaken in part through interviews with opera singers and close observation of opera singers in rehearsal and performance. This process also included the making of sketches of singers in movement, which are included in the thesis and which are regarded as kinaesthetic responses to what was observed. Combining the sketches with embodiment techniques that unlock the movement they contain, the gap between the spectatorial position and the performance maker position is bridged and movement-based practice is created and presented as a component of the thesis, in dialogue with the written component. Furthermore, the spectatorial and researcher positionality are recognised as that of an ‘opera queen’ and this position participates in facilitating the transfer of operaticness from singers to non-singing performers. Operatic movement is identified as that which occurs as a result of the physical restrictions of singing operatically and through the negotiation of those restrictions with the need to convey plot and character, giving rise to non-naturalistic or artificial way of moving. This emphasis on artificiality is theorised as an operatic sensibility akin to queerness. The thesis examines opera through the lens of postmodernism and in particular through a queer theoretical framework. The research analogously applies Butler’s poststructuralist theories concerning performative gender construction to opera and in doing so suggests a reading of opera as potentially queer, gender fluid, subversive and non-normative. This position challenges notions of opera as elitist and pro-establishment. The thesis posits that the operatic is an emergent property that occurs at the intersection of creative practices in opera and which is embodied by singers in performance. The thesis also posits that kinaesthetic empathy provides an explanation for how the operatic is communicated between singers and further suggests that the opera queen is similarly subject to a form of kinaesthetic empathy when listening to opera. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge through revealing ways in which spectatorial and performance maker positions may be bridged, as well as through suggesting practical ways in which non-singing performers might approach the task of moving operatically. The research therefore contributes to movement practice, but also to opera studies by interrogating the subject of opera from a kinaesthetic perspective that centralises the body and experience of singers in order to understand the art form.

This doctoral research comprises a practitioner-based reflective enquiry to bridge the gap between theory and practice and enhance my compositional output. In tandem with the composition of my chamber opera, The Exile, I have undertaken research into characterisation within the context of opera and musical theatre, with a focus on both the delineation of individual characters and the context in which they appear. Parameters of the work are discussed in comparison with canonic works of both opera and music theatre. Contemporary uses of leitmotif, representation of speech and folk music within operatic works are acknowledged and their influence on the composition is presented along with musical examples. The conventional composer-librettist partnership is discussed, along with suggestions for how respective roles for composer and librettist have evolved in recent times. An insight into the collaborative compositional process is presented in the final chapter, as my work with librettist Gillian Pencavel is discussed. The Exile is an original work informed by this research and is a contribution to the repertoire as well as an investigation into many compositional techniques presented in this thesis.

Die Aufführung der »Teofane« am 13. 9. 1719 war nicht einfach ein siebenstündiges festliches Opernereignis anlässlich einer Fürstenhochzeit, sondern Teil einer umfangreichen Inszenierung Augusts des Starken, der Macht, Reichtum und Bedeutung der sächsischen Krone in gebührender Weise zur Geltung bringen wollte. Dieses Dramma per musica mit Intrigen und dem lieto fine wird nun durch mehrere Kunstgriffe in Zusammenhang mit dem sächsischen Hofzeremoniell gebracht. Die Aufführung wurde einbezogen in die vom 2. September bis 30. September währenden Hoffestlichkeiten sowie in die Planetenfeste, die vom 10. September (Apoll gewidmet), 12. September (Mars), 15. September (Jupiter), 18. September (Luna), 20. September (Merkur), 23. September (Venus) bis zum 26. September (Saturn) stattfanden. Die Premiere der »Teofane« am 13. September war beziehungsreich nach dem Marsfest am 12. September plaziert. Dort preist der Kriegsgott das Paar, aus dessen Verbindung weitere Helden entstehen werden. Mars wird ein Turnier ausrufen, zu dem längst vergangene glorreiche Helden, die Manen Heinrichs von Sachsen, erscheinen werden. Und er erinnert daran, dass Kurfürst Johann Georg III. bei der Befreiung Wiens vom Türkischen Belagerungsheer 1683 den Österreichern wichtige militärische Hilfe gewährt hat. Auch der deutliche Verweis auf eine Liebeshochzeit, gleichermaßen im Stück wie im Leben, geht über die vom Affekt bestimmte Handlung des Dramma per musica hinaus. Liebe als Grundlage der Ehe zwischen dem Kurprinzen und der Kurprinzessin war eine weitere Botschaft des höfischen Festes, die es zu betonen galt. Deshalb wurde die Reprise der »Teofane« zwei Tage vor dem »Venusfest« angesetzt.

This research investigates the music-theatre phenomenon for the purpose of: clarifying how that differs from more traditional forms of musical theatre, i.e., Opera and Broadway musical; discussing its aesthetic bases; explicating its modes of operation in relation to both music and theatre. The writing is structured in three main parts. The first concern of the discussion is to clarify the connection between music and performance. To that end, Part One starts by reflecting on the nature of music and how its perception has been changed by modern technology, throwing live performance into question. The notions of physicality, embodiment, and gesture are then invoked in order to re-position music firmly within the performing arts. Part Two then delves into music-theatre touching on issues of terminology, artistic scope, positioning, production, funding, structures, institutions. Part Three, finally, offers some conclusions and recommendations. The Thesis is then followed by a commentary to the portfolio of compositions accompanying this research. The musical scores and audio-visual material relative to the works therein discussed are included on 1 separately bound volume.

Writing for solo instruments today offers composers an option to create a framework that results from the psychoacoustic interaction of composer, listener and performer. The interaction between musicians, audience and the concert environment, and the extent to which they themselves embody the material of the music presented, can be called into question and a composer's expectation of the dynamics of the concert situation is part of this examination. This understanding in turn prepares the way for one of the ultimate challenges and achievements for a composer, writing an opera. Opera combines all the other arts with the composer in command, which is not the case when composing for dance or providing auxiliary music for theatre. Writing an opera means that all features of structure and timing are in the composer’s hands. Opera has had a crisis of identity; the market for traditional operas and classic repertoire but there is no overall identity for contemporary operatic writers. However modern opera is still evolving. This thesis will recount a range of musical ideas developed for a variety of classical solo instruments, all of which attempt to create this interactive concert situation, before going on to consider the three year evolution of my opera The Doll Behind the Curtain.