(DIS-)EMBODIED VOICES AND DIGITAL LIVENESS: MUSIC THEATRE IN LOCKDOWN

DOI https://doi.org/10.51191/issn.2637-1898.2021.4.6.22
UDC 782:616.9(417)

Wolfgang Marx

University College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland

Author’s contact information: wolfgang.marx@ucd.ie

INSAM Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology, Issue 6, 2021

Main Theme of the Issue: Music, Art, and Humanities in the Time of Global Crisis

Publisher: INSAM Institute for Contemporary Artistic Music, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Section: THE MAIN THEME

Abstract: 20 Shots of Opera, released in December 2020, is a series of twenty short pieces of music theatre between five and eight minutes long. They were created and produced in just a few months. What makes the pieces special is that they were conceived to be produced under pandemic conditions and with purely an online reception in mind. This has affected details of the recording process as well as directorial concepts such as the use of animation or superimposition of pictures. This article will analyze how selected Shots engage with these conditions, look at different types of how the voices are used and assess the specific aesthetic circumstances of digital reception, as well as discussing other specific challenges and opportunities of creating music theatre in times of Covid-19.

Keywords: Music theatre, contemporary music, virtual opera, pandemic, music and Covid-19, Irish new music, music in lockdown, digital liveness, embodied voices, 20 Shots of Opera

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3. INSAM Journal 6, Wolfgang Marx