Respect for Opera

Inner Objects in our daily lives...

2009-09-14T17:41:00.003-04:00

One example of how we use Inner Objects in our daily lives is whenever we are recounting a story to someone, we will mentally contact the inner objects to assist us in telling the story.

Rarely do we train our eyes on someone to tell them a story without breaking eye contact to do this. Try it. Tell a friend a story of something that happened to you in the not-too-distant past with your eyes LOCKED on their eyes. You will find it VERY difficult to tell your story to your listener. We naturally avert our eyes (up or to the sides) in order to reconstruct the story we're telling. We do this because we are connecting with our Inner Objects.

Here is an example.

(The Inner Objects in this story are in BOLD):

Yesterday, my friend came over and we made dinner. We had pasta and garlic bread after we got back from a concert at the YMCA Theater. After the concert we went down the subway station and got on right as the train was coming into the station. We transferred to a the 73 bus. The bus was filled with passengers, and I checked my pockets for the change to make sure that I had enough for the fare. Once we got dropped off at the T Stop, we crossed the street and got into the house. Then we made dinner, had a wonderful glass of wine (or two) and enjoyed a television program.

Each of the above objects will be contacted in your mind's eye as you tell the story. Additionally, as the listener hears this story, they will create their OWN Inner Objects. They will visualize the dinner, the train station, the theater, and they will imagine what these places look like in their mind's eye. As the listener hears your story, they will become actively involved through their visualizations of your story.

This is one perfect example of using Inner Objects.

Endowment and the Physical Senses

2009-09-12T16:00:00.008-04:00

Endowment is the art of "endowing" an object with properties that it may not possess in real life (i.e., the smell of a rose), or that may cause danger to the performer onstage (a sharp knife).

By endowing the objects that you use in the course of the opera, you are able to summon sensations at will.

It was Uta Hagen's firm belief that the doorway to our human experiences was through our senses. Taste, Touch, Smell, Hearing, and Sight can often remain unexplored by the average person. However, as singer-actors it is vital that we reconnect with these five senses in order to stimulate our onstage life.

It is in the five senses that you can truly open yourself and increase your sensitivity to everything around you. Normal everyday things that can pass you by, can become miraculous when you take them in with your five senses. For example, a tree that you pass on the way to work can become a great thing of beauty when you allow yourself to take it in.

To this day, I can't smell lilacs without being transported to my childhood home in the early spring, when the lilacs were in full bloom. My mother and I would go out and cut branches off the trees and use them as centerpieces for the kitchen table. The odor of those blooms stays with me to the present day, and whenever I smell them waves of nostalgia and memories of my deceased mother move in on me, and I may even find my eyes mist at the memory.

In the same fashion, the taste of cake and ice cream will transport me back to family parties that can instantly create intense feelings of happiness and well-being.

The more attuned we can become to our senses, the more closely we can access a world of creative expression in our acting.

The recreation of physical sensations is a major component of an acting technique.

For further evidence, here is just a very brief listing of physical sensations as they pertain to opera:

Drunkenness: Le nozze di Figaro, L'elisir d'amore

Heat: Carmen, Tosca

Cold: La boheme, Vanessa, Fidelio

Sharp Objects: Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Wozzeck, Lulu, Pagliacci

Fatigue: La Traviata, La boheme, Fidelio

Waking Up/Sleeping: La Sonnambula, Hansel and Gretel, Macbeth

Coughing: Adriana Lecouvreur, La traviata, La boheme

In the next post, I'll describe and discuss the Fifth Exercise: Recreating Physical Sensations.

Hagen explains Destination

2009-09-11T13:27:00.000-04:00

Inner objects

2009-09-07T19:20:00.000-04:00

Inner objects are mental images that we contact in our mind's eye to propel our thinking during the course of an opera.

These inner objects are not to be confused with the external objects that we can actually see and make contact with in our environs.

They can be used very effectively when listening to others in the opera and also to give a story about the past an authentic reality. These are problems that occur in EVERY opera. Think about every time you are onstage listening to another character tell a story or relate an event, almost EVERY opera contains a character who tells a story about something that happened in the past. One vivid example of this includes Donna Anna's recitative prior to "Or sai chi l'onore". It is a rich depiction of her near rape by Don Giovanni, and is an expressive treasure trove of inner object work.

In the creation of these inner objects, it must be strongly stressed that you do not demand any particular order or scripting of these objects. You must allow them to be fresh and be given free rein while you are staying connected to the particulars of the events of the opera.

The more inner objects that you have, the more creative food you will have for involving, acting thoughts. These objects will help you channel your attention on your character's life and give intense meaning to your ACTIONS -

The exit

2009-09-06T22:31:00.006-04:00

In order to make a successful exit, we must understand that the life of the character who is leaving the stage is continuing off into the wings. It traces back to the idea that as human beings we are always coming and going somewhere. This is what Hagen refers to when she talks about "Destination" and it forms the core of her technique.

Therefore, we can't omit the importance of this idea.

A friend of mine and I recently viewed a performance of "Lucia di Lammermoor" from one of the top opera houses in the country. Following the baritone's first act aria, he exited the stage with a flourish of his cape. My friend and I laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of this stagey cliche much to the chagrin of those seated around us. He signaled to the entire audience that this was "the exit" - but in the meantime he had betrayed the truthfulness of the moment, and resorted to bad acting in the service of his ego.

During our last actions on stage, we know where we've come from, and what we're currently occupied with. But you also have to know what your next destination is, and what you WANT as you are exiting the stage. It has to be so specific and detailed that we will be mentally on the way off even as we are exiting. But be on guard that this is NOT just a checking off of fictional facts.

Like the aforementioned baritone, the opposite error can also be made when the self-conscious performer stops acting before leaving the stage. These singers simply "fade into the wings".

As Tosca is exiting in Act Two, she will be gathering her things (i.e. gloves, wrap, safe-conduct notice, etc.) but mentally she will be connecting with the waiting carriage outside and the journey from the Palazzo Farnese to Castel Sant'Angelo. She is already anticipating getting to Mario as quickly as possible so that she can give him the news of his reprieve.

Whatever your final destination is, the action is obviously incomplete until you are well off-stage.

Every exit is a new destination.

Reality in Art, Reality in Life

2009-08-28T21:15:00.004-04:00

"If Otello were to feel the rage expressed musically and dramatically in Verdi's final scene, one would need to engage a new Desdemona every night, and the tenore robusto would face charges of homicide. Otello could not successfully accomplish strangulation and high vocal tessitura simultaneously. Nor can Violetta become a wild, inebriated woman while accomplishing her melismatic tasks at high levels of vocal intensity and physical energy. A genuinely weeping Rodolfo will find it impossible to deliver his final, heartbreaking, sustained G#4 vocal cries of "Mimi" Andromache cannot move us with her decision to throw her royal son over a precipice if she is as torn apart emotionally as she would be by such a horrible act in real life."

"Art consists of the disciplining of reality for the portrayal of emotion without succumbing to emotion."

- Richard Miller, "On the Art of Singing"

Both quotes come from the great pedagogue Richard Miller, whose contributions to the vocal pedagogy world are legion.

It's very interesting that his thoughts and feelings are not at all out of line with the precepts that Uta Hagen discussed in her life's work. I thought that Miller's ideas just go to show the artistic aspects of the creation of a human character on the stage. It speaks to the necessity of a technique, not only for singing, but also for acting.

I am only impressed when the actor's technique is so perfect that it has become INVISIBLE and has persuaded the audience that they are in the presence of a living human being who makes it possible for them to empathize with all his foibles and struggles as they unfold in the play."

Uta Hagen, "A Challenge for the Actor"

L'ho perduta, me meschina!!

2009-08-27T14:26:00.004-04:00

One of the great things about the Hagen exercises is that they continue to build on one other, adding a different element each time you do another exercise. When approaching any new exercise (whether for singing OR acting) it's important not to forget the other elements as you are adding to your exercise regimen.

In Destination (Exercise #1) we learned how to select pertinent activities from our daily lives in a three-minute time period. We see what motivates our behavior in the pursuit of a simple task, and all the little things that create a life onstage. In the Fourth Side (Exercise #2) we finally manage to create a relationship, either primary or secondary, with the Fourth Side of the theater - neither pushing out into, or ducking from the audience. Changes of Self (Exercise #3) opens us up to the potentialities in finding different aspects of ourselves and putting them to the service of any character we're called up to play.

In Hagen's fourth exercise, The Lost Object, we're able to learn many levels of information that are often overlooked in bringing a character to life. On the first level is the moment to moment existence of any part you play. It teaches you to be TRULY occupied with a task that has high stakes, and to find the way that emotions work on us as human beings.

Emotions in singing can be a deadly topic, because any intense emotionalism can wreak havoc on the singing mechanism. It is my assertion (and I believe Hagen's assertion as well) that we are creative artists, and should have complete control of any character we ever portray. In her own words, Hagen said:

"And hysteria is a state to be avoided by the actor at all costs. It is a state in which one is flooded with truly uncontrollable emotions, in which one becomes illogical to the point of losing awareness of any contact with surrounding realities. It is of no artistic use. It is anti-art!"

Emotions fluctuate like a fever chart, and they are sourced in the circumstances in which you find yourself. As human beings we NEVER plan when we're going to get angry, get happy, cry, laugh or scream, and neither do we plan the length and intensity of these emotions.

Emotions TAKE US, we can't take THEM.

In the fourth exercise you'll set up circumstances in which you find a lost object that has tremendous value to your circumstances. It can be any object - keys, a check, credit cards, directions, phone numbers, eyeglasses, jewelry, airplane tickets, theater tickets, etc. The object MUST have great value to you so that it will intensify your search. Not being able to find this object will evoke STRONG emotions in you. That's good. Make sure you know what the consequences will be IF YOU DON'T find this object.

As you rehearse this at home, observe how something in one moment leads you to the next moment. Remember, too, that you're FAITH in your circumstances is GREATEST when you are TAKING ACTION!! That way, when YOU REALLY look for the lost object, you will find emotions coming in on you and you will BELIEVE that you have really lost the object.

The purpose of the exercise is to train you to focus on your DOINGS, not on your FEELINGS. Many singers go terribly wrong in this department and play general states of emotion which do nothing to further their character's existence onstage. You'll almost always be able to tell someone how you FELT when something happened, but you'd be hard pressed to tell them what you DID in the circumstances.

You'll also notice how emotions work on you - one minute you may be calm. Don't judge that calmness and think "Oh, that's wrong. I should be FEELING SOMETHING here." Let the calm be there, continue the action - you may get something EVEN BETTER in a few moments.

Also be aware that any time you try to REPEAT an emotion you experienced in a rehearsal or performance - THAT BECOMES YOUR OBJECTIVE - and it prevents you from playing actions in the IMMEDIATE present.

You will find that the more you practice this exercise, the more you will become alive to the impulses that move in on you, and will allow you to approach character work in a FRESH and HUMAN way, every time you practice or perform.

To show an example of a "lost object" at its FINEST, here is an example from Act II of Tosca with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. When the lost object exercise is done correctly YOU as the audience will find that YOUR pulse quickens and that you become involved in the seach. Is she going to find it?

The lost object work begins around 5:35:

Transference

2009-08-24T13:47:00.004-04:00

A transference is the process of finding identification with aspects of a character's life and experiences by using people, places, and things from your own life.

This process is easier said than done. The process of finding these transferences is another example of what Hagen called "Self-stretching exercises".

What things do we need to find transferences for?

We need transferences to find identification with all aspects of the character's past and present, to substantiate our faith in the time and place of the opera, detailed surroundings, the circumstances that the character finds themselves living in, as well as endowing the relationships within the opera.

Most singers may do one or two transferences here and there, not realizing the scope and breadth of the work that will create a living human being onstage. All of the previous ideas should start the work for any singing-actor.

The secondary reason for transferences is to discover the BEHAVIOR of the character, justifying it while alerting you to EVERY circumstance, to EVERY inanimate object that stimulates you to act, to do something consequential about what you feel and want.

All the thoughts and ideas you have MEAN NOTHING until you put them INTO action. Remember that TO ACT is TO DO. This is a major point to always remember when you are in the midst of creating a character.

It is these NEW ACTIONS that will reveal the new you - the character.

This work is HIGHLY PERSONAL and it should light the fires of your own creativity and exploration. If something doesn't work for you as a transference - find something else. The reason is that if YOU don't believe it, how do you expect the audience to believe it as well?

Nothing should exist in the world of the opera to you IN GENERAL. Why? Because NOTHING in your OWN LIFE exists in general. You know your relationship to everything in your life - your clothing, your relationships, your locations, etc. etc. This was all discovered in the Destination exercise.

Also remember that finding the transference is NOT a means in itself. The application of the transference is the important reason we find them in the first place. If you carry around a mental picture of your boyfriend/girlfriend in a scene that you're playing with a lover and not finding the behavior that the image inspires in you - then the transference has not served you.

Remember that when you perform an action to another character onstage, you are putting the action or behavior ONTO the other person or object, NOT to your original source. That's where most errors can be made - the singing-actor carries around the image, doing homework onstage, and losing the relationship to the characters and objects onstage.

You also MUST GUARD AGAINST SHARING YOUR TRANSFERENCES WITH THE OTHERS IN YOUR SHOW.

Why?

Because if you share what you're using, the other singing-actor onstage will be judging the effectiveness of what you're using, rather than having a genuine give-and-take with you onstage. He/she will be an OBSERVER to your work, rather than a participant in it. If you do share the source of your transferences, you will negate their use in your work by making you self-conscious of them until they become useless.

Start now to build the warehouse of transferences that you can use in any and every opera you ever perform. I find it's useful to keep a private spiral-bound notebook of sources that I can refer to when performing in an opera.

Best of luck!

Bringing Yourself to Opera

2009-08-23T14:53:00.003-04:00

Expanding your sense of yourself is one of the most invaluable things that you can do as an artist.

Because opera can be such an egoic art form, many singers tend to find the elements of performance that put them on display, playing to what they think the audience WANTS to see and hear, and trading in their own unique artistic voices for an easily constructed imitation.

Our souls are mysterious, infinite, and wondrous. We always believe that we have a sense of who we are - but do we REALLY know who we are? We hold onto cliched images of ourselves that never reveal the true nature and depth of who we are.

Can we be RUTHLESSLY honest with ourselves? When are we greedy, bossy, fearful, silly, hateful, spiteful? When I'm dealing with a rude salesperson, I can take offense, my ego can rise in me (despite myself) and I can find myself becoming aggressive, rude, and indignant in return.

You can't let anything idiosyncratic pass you by! All the delicious neuroses, impulses, fears, and stupidities are what make you WHO YOU ARE and they also create the characters that you will portray.

The basic components of the characters we will play are somewhere within ourselves. There are hundreds of people within you that will surface throughout the course of a single day. You change your sense of self a hundred times a day as you are influenced by circumstances, your relationship to others, the nature of the event, and your clothing.

This self-discovery will NEVER cease and it will take a long time to put into practice consistently.

Watching others can be helpful to you if it assists you to identify HOW YOU BEHAVE. But to look OUTSIDE YOURSELF for an imitation of someone else is as dangerous as copying someone else's vocal sound or style.

Hagen's THIRD exercise is a terrific way to learn more about yourself and the things that propel and source your behavior. You'll be able to quickly delve into different aspects of yourself. You'll also discover how you treat people depending on who they are, your past with them, how they're treating you, what you want from them and what else is going on in your life. It will also give you insight into your relationships and teach you that NO RELATIONSHIP is in stasis.

In the exercise, you make or receive three separate phone calls from three separate people. Make sure to select three people that cause your behavior to change when they interact with you. The circumstances that you select should be unrelated to the phone calls themselves. You can set it up like the FIRST exercise, but you just happen to make/receive calls. Just be sure that the calls change your behavior and NOT the circumstances that you find yourself.

This exercises should last for 3 minutes. Make sure to keep to it, to keep your selections fresh and to the point.

You could be calling your sister to tell her good news about getting cast in an opera but her 5-year-old little girl picks up the phone, then a telemarketer interrupts your call to inform you that your credit card bill is 90 days overdue and they are going to send you to collections. After that, your boyfriend/girlfriend calls to ask you to go to the movies.

Each of these calls will elicit different behavior. Do this exercise many times with many different people on the other end to learn about yourself and to build a warehouse of transferences to use for future productions.

You can apply this exercise to your aria/scene work by putting up the Fourth Side before you begin work on it. Know who you are singing to in the aria and see how your behavior is affected by that other person. Make them as specific to you as the current relationships you have in your own life.

Sympathy for the Devil

2009-01-23T09:18:00.008-05:00

I remember as a younger singer hearing the story of Mirella Freni singing Madama Butterfly. Freni couldn't stop crying when she was singing the part, and it was one of the reasons why she rarely attempted to sing the entire opera live.

This story raises a major point in creating a character for the stage: If we are to create a fully-dimensional portrayal of a flesh-and-blood character, we can't stand on the outside and look in, sympathizing or weeping for the character's plight. When we first listen to or study a score and libretto, we may find ourselves laughing at things that the characters do (when they're NOT laughing), or crying at the tragedy of their circumstances (when their eyes are DRY).

Examples are vast in the operatic repertoire. When Susanna and Cherubino are in a plight to find a way out of the locked room, they find their situation as ANYTHING but funny. They should be too busy in trying to find a way OUT!! (Aprite presto, aprite) But we in the audience laugh because we are looking into their world as OBSERVERS. Actresses who play this scene over the top only for laughs, or wink to the audience, have gone deeply off track in maintaining their artistic faith in the circumstances of the scene. And it's BAD acting - in my opinion.

Another example can be found in Toscas that broadcast the emotional tragedy of Act III, even before the firing squad shoots Mario Cavaradossi! Just because the audience knows what will happen, doesn't mean that TOSCA DOES! And Tosca's mood at this moment is one of relief - she is GOING TO GET AWAY! Playing the "mood" of the tragedy lessens the real horror of the moment she finds Mario dead.

As singing actors, we need to be less concerned about an "emotional state" and more concerned with what the characters are DOING, both physically (Destination) and mentally (Inner Objects).

As singers we need to be very careful of our first exposure to the opera and the role. Be on guard that you don't form any preconcieved notions of the character. It's even worse to fall into easy stereotyped portrayals (villain, hero). This will ALWAYS stand in the singer's way from a dramatic standpoint. Some of my favorite portrayals of villains were those that didn't PLAY the villian aspect of their characters. Maybe this is why so many women fell in love with Gobbi's Scarpia?

This method of working lets you experience a work from a fresh and HUMAN perspective, rather than dramatic cliches.

As you work on a role, begin the identification process by changing first your pronouns. Begin to work as if you are the character in the opera. Pronouns like "she wouldn't", or "he would" only serve to keep you at a distance from the character. Also, study in DEPTH the circumstances of the scene, and you will give yourself a much better start at finding the behavior of the character - much as you did with the 6 questions.

"I", "me", "my" are powerful tools that will help you unlock the character from WITHIN, rather than from WITHOUT.

6 Questions

2009-01-22T13:49:00.003-05:00

Apply these 6 questions to yourself RIGHT NOW.

Then spend some time with them over the next several days. Once you can define them for YOURSELF, then approach an aria, a scene, or an entire opera with these same questions.

1. WHO AM I?

What is my present state of being?
How do I perceive myself?
What am I wearing?

2. WHAT ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES?

What time is it? (The year, the season, the day? At what time does my selected life begin?)
Where am I? (In what city, neighborhood, building, and room do I find myself? Or in what landscape?)
What surrounds me? (The immediate landscape? The weather? The condition of the place and the objects in it?)
What are the immediate circumstances? (What has just happened, is happening? What do I expect or plan to happen next and later on?)

3. WHAT ARE MY RELATIONSHIPS?

How do I stand in relationship to the circumstances, the place, the objects, and the other people related to my circumstances?

4. WHAT DO I WANT?

What is my main objective? My immediate need or objective?

5. WHAT IS MY OBSTACLE?

What is in the way of what I want? How do I overcome it?

6. WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT?

How can I achieve my objective?
What's my behavior?
What are my actions?

The Fourth Side in Opera

2009-01-21T09:30:00.001-05:00

How many times do we see singers that stare at the floor in an opera or other vocal performance? Or conversely they push out into the space with mugging and illustration?

Rather than telling the singer to “get your eyes up and out” or “stop mugging to the audience”, we need to understand the reason behind such behavior. These bad techniques come from an inability to use the fourth side in an effective way. Once we understand how to use the fourth side in the theater, the tremendous burden that this removes from us is worth its weight in gold.

Oftentimes, we panic with a sudden awareness of the audience and this forces us to subconsciously “hide” by not giving our eyes to the auditorium. When we try to correct this, we end up pushing our eyes out into the auditorium which completely destroys our faith in our onstage life.

So what to do?

Well, we need to know that we can use the fourth side in two ways:

Primary use of the fourth side is used in two circumstances. When we are in an outdoor scene, we will contact visually specific objects that we can see and that we refer to verbally. These items are NOT in our minds eye. (For example, when singing about someone who is not in the room, we don't actually "see" them or place them in the room, unless they're a ghost - Macbeth, Hamlet, etc.)

The objects that are seen are usually referred to in the libretto by name (a mountain, a tree, a cloud, a bush, etc.). When these items are mentioned, the singer needs to know where in the auditorium these objects should be. To do so, objects should be attached to things that you can ACTUALLY see in the auditorium (the exit signs, the edge of a balcony, a railing). Don’t turn the EXIT sign into a bush, but place the bush under the exit sign. The other usage of the fourth side in a primary way is when all members of the cast place specific objects on the fourth side and use them together (A mirror, a painting, etc.). This is usually a directorial choice, and will be a strong one if taken by other members of the cast.

A rich operatic example of Primary Fourth Side would be Butterfly's aria, "Un bel di". In the aria, the actress portraying Cio-Cio San could place objects that she sees in the vista before herself. (Where will the smoke come from? Which hill will Pinkerton come up from? From where will she see the sails of the ship?) The vista that she sees down into the harbor can serve her throughout the opera in her expectation of seeing Pinkerton. This also will lead to an exciting rendition of the aria, as she creates this reality for Suzuki.

An error is to affix your eyes on only one spot for an entire aria.

Subliminal “secondary” use of the fourth side is when objects are there for you, but you are only aware of them unconsciously. When none of our activities should be OVERTLY directed out front. For example, when playing a scene in a room, it’s best to complete the wall with objects (4-6 items) that are merely THERE FOR you and affirm your faith in them. If you suddenly contact an object that you have placed on the wall (a clock, for instance) and are aware of the time on that clock, then you have made a secondary usage of the fourth side a primary one for yourself. Unless you and the other cast members have established that that is a clock, and where it is located, the audience will wonder why you suddenly became aware of something in the auditorium (is there an emergency? Did someone arrive late to the theater?).

A lesson I learned the hard way is this: you CANNOT suspend objects in MIDAIR!

Try it. Visualize an object in front of yourself. Then turn away from it and back again. It will elude you as you try to refocus on it. Until I made the connection of putting my visualized objects onto things I COULD see, I was susceptible to an unfocused usage of my eyes. (Where is that object again?)

You should also put your objects on the fourth side DURING REHEARSALS. Spend time in each scene and/or act that you are performing in building this fourth side for yourself. You NEVER want to be fastening your objects on things during a performance. When performing a concert or a competition when you may walk onto a new stage, try to do whatever you can to see the space before you perform to decide where your objects will be located. If possible, get online and look for pictures of the hall that will give you a sense of space and visual landmarks.

A word of advice: you should also always place your objects within peripheral view of the conductor. In this way, you can always be in contact with the maestro without having to lock eyes on him.

How can you practice this on your own? Hagen’s second Object Exercise entails self-awareness while making a phone call to someone. During the conversation, note what your eyes land on in your home, while you are primarily occupied with the telephone call. If you are lying in bed, your eyes will tend to move toward the ceiling, which will negate the purpose of this exercise. Be aware that you are only making secondary use of the things you see in your environment. If during the course of your call, you suddenly become aware of the time on the clock on the wall, you have made primary use of the fourth wall, which is not the purpose of this exercise.

With that knowledge, approach an aria. Are there any objects visually contacted during the course of the aria? Are you outdoors? Indoors? Does the aria make primary or secondary use of the fourth side? Create your objects in locations that you CAN see in the hall similar to the same way you did in the phone call, so that they are merely there for you. This should lead to an exhilarating feeling of “creative solitude” which allows you to tell the story of the aria without staring at the floor, or pushing out into the audience.

Try it!

This idea of "destination"

2008-11-13T13:09:00.001-05:00

In discussing Hagen's ideas in a systematic way, the work on "Destination" forms the backbone of her technique. Once I really understood destination, it forever changed my experience of being onstage.

The idea - in a nutshell - is that as human beings we always know where we are at any given moment in time. We know where we've come from, and where we are going. AND we know what specific objects are around us in addition to our RELATIONSHIP with them.
When I could break down my behavior in two minutes under normal circumstances (say, a homecoming) suddenly the reasons for my behavior become abundantly clear.

For example, in coming home from work there are a million different realities and needs as I walk through the front door - the need to make myself comfortable by removing my work clothes, the effect that the unwashed dishes in the sink have on me, glasses left out from drinking the night before, what's occurred at work, what I expect to happen later that evening.

All these simple little things would determine how I would behave in the circumstances. When I found that, I knew the realities that needed to be created for any role or scene that I would perform.

Uta's breakdown of an ENTRANCE into 3 steps is so simple - yet how many of us actually do the homework. Uta would say that you prepare for the FIRST MOMENT, and then you takeoff into the realities of the play (or opera).

Her steps are:
1) Where did I just come from and what was I doing there?
2) Where am I now and what am I doing here?
3) Where am I going and what do I want to do there?

When these three steps are active, we can really bring our life onto the stage. And when does our character's selected life begin? IT BEGINS IN THE WINGS.

To use an operatic example, let's take the entrance of Tosca in Act I of the opera. We can create the realities of the opera for ourselves by beginning to identify with the daily life of a prima donna in the early 1800s. Before she comes in, her answers may be:

1) Where did I just come from and what was I doing there?
I just came from the flower market where I bought flowers to bring to the Madonna. The weather is very hot for June, and I'm trying to keep cool in my linen dress. Mario has never seen me in it before. At the flower market they know me very well, and I always get the best bouquet from the vendor because I am a celebrated diva. The people congratulate me and I thank them for their kind words.

2) Where am I now and what am I doing here?
Right now I'm outside the Church of Sant'Andrea delle Valle. The morning has become warm, and the perspiration on my brow and neck are beginning to cause me some annoyance. Additionally, I have this overburden of flowers which are heavy. And now the chapel door is locked which is never the case. This suddenly makes me wonder if my boyfriend, Mario Cavaradossi is seeing someone. I can hear the sound of a dress, and the whispers from within.

3) Where am I headed next and what do I want to do there?
MY IMMEDIATE NEED IS THAT I want to get inside the church and see who's in there with Mario.

This VERY brief overview of ideas should begin the process of discovery in the life of the character and create an entrance that is TOTALLY in alignment with the character's wishes and realities. It gives you the proper springboard from which to launch Tosca into her life onstage. This work goes on for every role you take on.

I hope these ideas are interesting, and

Until next time....

Respect for Opera

2008-10-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

I'm going to start blogging about my artistic growth and what I'm learning.

I thought I'd start with what has influenced me in SUCH a major way as to what as I think about singing and bringing a character to full life.

One of the ideals that I want to pursue is that in opera, we must present REAL human beings in action, not mimics or indications of characters onstage. Opera is the musical theater equivalent of Shakespeare - in my opinion. Many of the challenges of actors in Shakespeare are similar to those faced by opera singers.

I think this idea of real humans really breaks open the notions that we have of "traditional" interpretation, and gives us a blank canvas with which each of us can begin the work. Art is something that we work TOWARD, it is not the end goal. There is no end.

Like Shakespeare's roles, we singers live with our own ghosts of past versions and interpretations of the roles of Tosca, Rodolfo, Carmen, Boris Godonov. But there CANNOT be any IDEAL interpretation of these operas, otherwise we would have to stop performing Norma because of Callas, for example. Why should we not re-examine these works with real human behavior? I think the secret to great opera lies in the fact that opera is GREAT THEATER. (Or it should be.)

I often think about the fleshing out of operas like La Boheme. In the opening act, Mimi comes to the apartment of Rodolfo because her candle has gone out. But is this REALLY the reason? Maybe she's cold and lonely on Christmas eve? How many times has she seen Rodolfo in the building or in the street where she lives? All these random questions should feed the scene where she passes out in front of Rodolfo. If I fainted in the apartment of someone I found attractive, my first instinct would be to be HORRIFIED and EMBARRASSED! (How are you going to have a chance of getting this guy to like you NOW?) Yet how many Mimis wake up with the attitude of "what's my next line?" I could see justification of her making it for the door to LEAVE - so great is her embarrassment, but Rodolfo pulls her back into the room.

That's why I think any singer wanting to perform as a singing-actor needs ACTING lessons. One of the teachers that has affected me is Uta Hagen. Her work has touched me for many reasons. One is that her parents and family were musicians and artists themselves. Her mother was an opera singer, and the fact that Uta later developed the Object Exercises is a testament to the musical self-discipline of her mother. As singers we all sings scales to balance the registers, train the breath, and secure our voices. Hagen's exercises do the same for the acting technique. Each exercise builds on the previous one, and by the time singers/actors finish the last one, they should have a good idea of how to create a role effectively.

In this blog, I'll be discussing the Hagen exercises and techniques in a step by step fashion, and I open the dialogue for discussion and considerations of specific application to opera.