Here's something you might be interested in.
Have you ever seen a movie or a play and thought the characters were superficial and lacking depth?
Let me think of an example.
Here we go, pick any character from Star Wars and I think you’ll get the idea. What do we really know about Luke or Han Solo? Have they ever surprised us or do they always make the choice we expect them to?
It’s kind of the same thing with opera.
Let's use Michael Shurtleff's excellent book Audition as a guide.
Why this book? It is written to help actors quickly develop a character in an audition setting.
What could be better at an opera than having the ability to quickly find the hidden depth of the characters?
We’ll be looking at all twelve of Shurtleff’s guideposts and do some practical application to some famous operas.
Guidepost number one is relationship. This goes beyond the facts such as Rigoletto is Gilda’s father or Pinkerton is Cio Cio San’s husband.
The primary aspect to look for is love. Shurtleff claims that every scene is a love scene if we first ask the question, "Where's the love?"
Shurtleff explains, "This does not mean that every scene is about Romeo and Juliet-type love; sometimes the scene is about the absence or deprivation of love. But by asking 'Where is the love?' you come up with an answer that will involve you emotionally with more immediacy than if you fail to ask that question."
He warns us to create the emotions of the character as we would feel them instead of trying to guess how the character would feel them.
Shurtleff is talking to actors but the same admonition goes for audience members. The audience member must know more than the character knows.
Sometimes the composer makes it obvious that there is an underlying tension such as the conclusion of the aria Amor ti vieta from Giordano’s opera Fedora.
The final line of the text is translated as, “Your eyes say ‘I love you!’ while your lips say ‘I will not love you’”.
Characters lie to hide their true emotions just like normal non-dramatic people do.
Next time we’ll look at a scene that appears to be full of hate and try to find the love--sexual desire counts as love for the purposes of this discussion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1m2HKAEmuQ
Have you ever seen a movie or a play and thought the characters were superficial and lacking depth?
Let me think of an example.
Here we go, pick any character from Star Wars and I think you’ll get the idea. What do we really know about Luke or Han Solo? Have they ever surprised us or do they always make the choice we expect them to?
It’s kind of the same thing with opera.
Let's use Michael Shurtleff's excellent book Audition as a guide.
Why this book? It is written to help actors quickly develop a character in an audition setting.
What could be better at an opera than having the ability to quickly find the hidden depth of the characters?
We’ll be looking at all twelve of Shurtleff’s guideposts and do some practical application to some famous operas.
Guidepost number one is relationship. This goes beyond the facts such as Rigoletto is Gilda’s father or Pinkerton is Cio Cio San’s husband.
The primary aspect to look for is love. Shurtleff claims that every scene is a love scene if we first ask the question, "Where's the love?"
Shurtleff explains, "This does not mean that every scene is about Romeo and Juliet-type love; sometimes the scene is about the absence or deprivation of love. But by asking 'Where is the love?' you come up with an answer that will involve you emotionally with more immediacy than if you fail to ask that question."
He warns us to create the emotions of the character as we would feel them instead of trying to guess how the character would feel them.
Shurtleff is talking to actors but the same admonition goes for audience members. The audience member must know more than the character knows.
Sometimes the composer makes it obvious that there is an underlying tension such as the conclusion of the aria Amor ti vieta from Giordano’s opera Fedora.
The final line of the text is translated as, “Your eyes say ‘I love you!’ while your lips say ‘I will not love you’”.
Characters lie to hide their true emotions just like normal non-dramatic people do.
Next time we’ll look at a scene that appears to be full of hate and try to find the love--sexual desire counts as love for the purposes of this discussion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1m2HKAEmuQ