Doctoral Colloquium (Music) | Joy H. Calico
The Doctoral Colloquium is open to all. Please note the change of time, date, and location.
Doctoral Colloquium: Joy H. Calico, Herb Alpert School of Music at the University of California
Title: The Dramaturgy of Amplified Breath in Contemporary Opera
Abstract: This is a response to Ryan Ebright’s clarion call for opera scholars to treat sound design as an essential element of the creation and production of contemporary opera, with a particular focus on its potential for manipulating the audience experience of space through the strategic use of amplified breath. I adapt Luigi Nono’s concept of spatial dramaturgy, which is the mobility, directionality, and diffusion of amplified sound in the service of storytelling, to propose three distinct lines of inquiry for sound design: its use in site-specific opera; live opera designed for cyberspace; and live opera in the theater. I will focus on the latter, using Chaya Czernowin's Infinite Now (2017) as my primary example for theorizing the dramaturgy of amplified breath in contemporary opera.
