Overview
Both in opera studies and in most operatic works, the singing body is often taken for granted. In Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body, Jelena Novak reintroduces an awareness of the physicality of the singing body to opera studies. Arguing that the voice-body relationship itself is a producer of meaning, she furthermore posits this relationship as one of the major driving forces in recent opera. She takes as her focus six contemporary operas - La Belle et la Bête (Philip Glass), Writing to Vermeer (Louis Andriessen, Peter Greenaway), Three Tales (Steve Reich, Beryl Korot), One (Michel van der Aa), Homeland (Laurie Anderson), and La Commedia (Louis Andriessen, Hal Hartley) - which she terms 'postoperas'. These pieces are sites for creative exploration, where the boundaries of the opera world are stretched. Central to this is the impact of new media, a de-synchronization between image and sound, or a redefinition of body-voice-gender relationships. Novak dissects the singing body as a set of rules, protocols, effects, and strategies. That dissection shows how the singing body acts within the world of opera, what interventions it makes, and how it constitutes opera’s meanings.
Full Product Details
Author: Jelena Novak ,
Professor Roberta Montemorra Marvin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint: Routledge
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 1.30cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.521kg
ISBN: 9781472441034
ISBN 10: 1472441036
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 28 May 2015
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
'Novak's scholarship is admirable: wide-ranging, impressively theorized, and distinctly original. ... This book promises to make a genuine impact on contemporary opera studies.' Richard Leppert, University of Minnesota, USA
a [Novaka (TM)s] scholarship is admirable: wide-ranging, impressively theorized, and distinctly original. a | This book deserves to make a genuine impact on contemporary opera studies.a (TM) Richard Leppert, University of Minnesota, USA
Author Information
Jelena Novak works in the area of musicology, opera studies, performance studies, dramaturgy and criticism. She is a postdoctoral research fellow at CESEM (Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical), New University of Lisbon, Portugal with the project 'Opera beyond Drama.' She has been a founding committee member of the Society for Minimalist Music and a founding member of the editorial collective TkH (Walking Theory). In 2013 she won the Thurnau Award for Music-Theatre Studies.
