Singers on stage
Opera practice in the 19th century was examined at the Bern University of the Arts.
This publication offers an aesthetic surprise, as anthologies of scholarly essays rarely have an attractive print and layout. The large format (290 x 195 mm) allows for easy-to-read musical examples and illustrations that are sensibly integrated into the text. In addition, the many black-and-white and color images are well selected and carefully printed.
The ten essays, seven in German and three in English - "Results of a study conducted as part of the research project Singer and actor The first part of the workshop report, "The Gestures of the Opera in the 19th Century", deals specifically with the gestural area of operatic practice in the 19th century, again mainly in Paris and Vienna; they report on the sign language of the time on the basis of performance reports and gesture textbooks, supported by instructive historical images, and they prove that the training of actors and singers was mostly identical. Theory and practice are presented, even if the second in the workshop report Gestures on the test bench and in the interview with a dance teacher and choreographer takes up relatively little space. The two main contributions, like the interview, are written in English and concentrate on the scene in Paris at the time: Singers as Actors examines the gestures at the Grand Opéra, Staging and Acting at the Théâtre Royal Italy.
Both pantomime and dance are included in an extensive essay. The Grand Opéra of a Meyerbeer, for example, came up with exclusivities from which contemporaries, including Wagner, profited, copied or attempted to surpass. Surprisingly, folkloric and national dances (also from Eastern Europe) were "transported" from the countryside to the city and integrated into opera interludes and ballet music, and also that the "dansomania" in Paris mainly broke out in 2/4 or 6/8 time, while in Vienna and Berlin ballroom fever broke out in 3/4 time and "unhinged" society.
Singers as actors. Zur Opernpraxis des 19. Jahrhunderts in Text, Bild und Musik, Musikforschung der Hochschule der Künste Bern, Vol. 5, ed. by Anette Schaffer, Edith Keller, Laura Moeckli, Florian Reichert and Stefan Saborowski, 196 p., € 32.00, Edition Argus, Schliengen 2014, ISBN 978-3-931264-85-7
