City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Ingvarsson, H.R. (2018). Opening opera: developing a framework that allows for the interactive creative processes of improvised theatre in the productions of new music- dramas. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Guildhall School of Music & Drama) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/21324/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Opening Opera: Developing a framework that allows for the interactive creative processes of improvised theatre in the productions of new music-dramas. Helgi Rafn Ingvarsson DMus (composition) Guildhall School of Music & Drama Composition Department April 2018 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 4 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Personal prelude ............................................................................................................ 6 1.2 Real-time paralinguistic manipulation ......................................................................... 6 1.3 Active accompaniment .................................................................................................. 8 1.4 My experience of two different performance genres ................................................... 8 1.4.1 Improvised theatre .............................................................................................................. 9 1.4.2 Keith Johnstone and The Theatre Machine ....................................................................... 9 1.4.3 Classical singing .................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Creative dynamics and processes ............................................................................... 11 2.1.1 Collaborative processes .................................................................................................... 12 2.1.2 Interactive processes ......................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Recitative and active accompaniment ........................................................................ 14 2.2.1 The Turn of the Screw ...................................................................................................... 15 2.2.2 Curlew River ..................................................................................................................... 16 2.2.3 Eight Songs for a Mad King ............................................................................................. 17 2.3 Alternative scoring methods for an interactive process ............................................. 18 2.3.1 Stimmung .......................................................................................................................... 18 2.3.2 Anuras ............................................................................................................................... 19 2.3.3 The Great Learning .......................................................................................................... 20 2.3.4 In C .................................................................................................................................... 21 2.3.5 Cadenza on the Night Plain .............................................................................................. 23 2.4 A meeting-place: Bringing processes from improvised theatre into operatic production ......................................................................................................................... 24 2.4.1 Improvisation and opera: micro and macro .................................................................... 26 2.4.2 The operatic score ............................................................................................................. 28 2.4.3 The theatre script .............................................................................................................. 29 2.4.4 The script-part .................................................................................................................. 29 2.5 A note on the audience ................................................................................................ 30 3.1 Suggestiveness ............................................................................................................. 31 3.2 An interactive aesthetic ............................................................................................... 32 3.3 Aims ............................................................................................................................. 33 3.4 A Glacier’s Requiem (excerpt).................................................................................... 34 3.4.1 Music ................................................................................................................................. 35 3.4.2 Text.................................................................................................................................... 36 3.4.3 The mobiles ....................................................................................................................... 37 3.4.4 Aesthetic speculation ........................................................................................................ 38 3.4.5 Calculable ratios ............................................................................................................... 38 2 3.5 Évariste (excerpt) ........................................................................................................ 42 3.5.1 Music & text ...................................................................................................................... 43 3.5.2 Balinese dance and the conductor .................................................................................... 48 3.5.3 Director Shirley Keane ..................................................................................................... 50 3.5.4 Aesthetic speculations ....................................................................................................... 52 3.5.5 Issues with instrumentation .............................................................................................. 54 3.6 Solitude 1 ..................................................................................................................... 55 3.6.1 The text ............................................................................................................................. 56 3.6.2 Version 1 ........................................................................................................................... 57 3.6.3 Version 2 ........................................................................................................................... 58 3.6.4 Gustav and Michelle: composer’s musical control .......................................................... 58 3.6.5 Eliza and Siwan: performance interaction ....................................................................... 59 3.6.6 Outcome ............................................................................................................................ 61 3.7 ‘After the Fall’ and the mobile score .......................................................................... 62 3.7.1 The story ........................................................................................................................... 63 3.7.2 ‘After’, the mobile score: dissolving the option of synchronisation................................. 66 3.7.3 Leadership: conductor cues .............................................................................................. 76 3.7.4 Transitions ........................................................................................................................ 78 3.7.5 Aesthetic speculation ........................................................................................................ 80 4.1 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 82 4.2 The compositional aesthetic and a definition of open opera ...................................... 82 4.3 A framework of working methods and considerations that will support future developments ..................................................................................................................... 83 Step 1: Considerations for assembling and maintaining a suitable performance team ...... 83 Step 2: Script-parts distributed ...........................................................................................