Singing, Ventriloquism and the Body

Abstract

In certain cases of postdramatic recent opera, or postopera, there are numerous ventriloquism-like desynchronizations between what we see and what we hear at the same time while action of singing is taking place. Those desynchronizations are related to breaking of silent conventions in relation to the singing body and the voice it produces. In opera studies, those issues of ‘ventriloquism’ are for a long time being taken as ‘blind spots’. Illuminating those fluent non-semantic relationships, ‘liminal utterances’ between the singing bodies and sung voices, and discussing their statuses and effects bring to light intriguing findings in relation to what contemporary opera is, and how it ‘talks’ about itself and the world that surrounds it. Those issues will be discussed in relation to recent pieces of some of the most important contemporary opera authors: Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Louis Andriessen, John Adams, Michel van der Aa, Laurie Anderson and others.