Dear Vocalisters:
In a recent response to another thread, Margaret Harrison used the term "good opera-acting coaching" and that gave me the idea of selecting it for a new thread on this list.
Much fun is made of "opera acting" as if the two words are a contradiction in terms similar to "honest attorney" or "clean roommate". It is a reputation that is well earned.
And, sad to say, it is often true that the opera goer expects little else than a few predictable gestures and conventional facial contortions to represent the depth of expression that should be portrayed by the music and the action.
One can add to this the extremely poor attempt made by many university/college opera programs toward teaching acting for the singer. Often the necessity of training the voice supercedes the training of the actor and the combination of singer-actor becomes lopsided toward the former at the expense of the latter.
I would add that, in my opinion, we see very little good acting in our popular media such as TV and Cinema. Instead we are confronted daily with "personalities" which passes for acting.
Anybody have opinions to share on this idea of acting for the singer? -- Lloyd W. Hanson
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