Opera: The Art of Emotions

The Opera Special Interest Group of the Musicological Society of Australia in association with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, 1100–1800

Voice, music, drama, poetry, plastic arts and dance combine to create a complex alchemy that makes opera an extraodinary experience monopolising the sight, hearing, imagination and sensibility of the audience. Without doubt, the human passions are at work on the opera stage. This conference aims to look at how emotions have been conceived, performed and experienced across the history of opera. We will interrogate and explore new theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding opera and the histories of emotion in which it operates.
 
The schedule is as follows:
 
Thursday 29 September, 6--7pm, Registration at Lionel's Bar on Grant Street at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Southbank. 
A performance of Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers will take place 7:30--8:30pm at the Grant Street Theatre, Southbank. Tickets are free and can be booked by clicking <A HREF="https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/marc-antoine-charpentier-la-descente-dorphee-aux-enfers-tickets-27063960033" TARGET="_blank" REL="noopener noreferrer">here</A>. (Tickets have already been reserved for presenters).
 
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Friday 30th September, Wyselaskie Auditorium (29 College Cres. Parkville) 
 
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Session 1) 9:15–10:45am: The Opera Singer (Chair: Erin Helyard) 
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Margaret Medlyn (Victoria University of Wellington): 'If you've got it, flaunt it: Chest voice exposed!' 
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Mark Shepheard (University of Melbourne): ' "All my emotions are concentrated in that heavenly song": The emotional life of the operatic castrato.'  
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Linda Barcan (Edith Cowan University): 'The affective performance practice of Pauline Viardot: A case study of the 1859 Berlioz revival of Gluck's Orphée.'  
 
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Morning tea, 10:45--11am  
 
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Session 2) 11am–12:30pm: Alternative Conceptual Approaches (Chair: Alan Maddox)
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John Carmody (University of Sydney): 'Emotion versus intellect: It's all in the same brain' 
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Lawrence Mays (Australian National University): 'L'Eroe Minusculo: Documenting the process of writing a new Italian comic intermezzo.' 
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Carol Williams (Monash University): 'The expression of emotion in Robin and Marion by Adam de la Halle.' 
 
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Lunch, 12:30--1:30pm  
 
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Session 3) 1:30–3:30pm: 20th-century Opera (Chair: Michael Halliwell)
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Georgia Jamieson Emms (Victoria University of Wellington): 'The last romantic: Emotion, fantasy and melody of Erich Korngold.' 
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Michael Christoforidis (University of Melbourne): 'Cervantes, Picasso and the neoclassical framing of emotions in Manuel de Falla's Master Peter's Puppet Show.'  
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Elizabeth Kertesz (University of Melbourne): 'How Carmen found her heart: Transforming the emotional landscape of Bizet's Carmen in the age of verismo.' 
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Patrick MacDevitt (University of Melbourne): 'Mona: Opera and fear of the women's vote in 1912 United States.'
 
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Afternoon tea, 3:30--3:45pm   
 
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Session 4) 3:45–5:15pm: Opera Beyond the Stage (Chair: Linda Barcan) 
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Helen Rusak (Edith Cowan University): 'Opera miniseries: Divorce: The soap opera.'  
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Roger Hillman (Australian National University): 'Italian opera, world cinema.' 
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Emma Jayakumar (Edith Cowan University): 'Opera for young people: The potential for greater engagement.'  
 
Short break, 5:15--5:30pm    
 
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Session 5) 5:30–6:30pm: Keynote Address (Chair: Jane Davidson)
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Professor Neal Zaslaw (Cornell University): 'How do we feel about opera?'   
 
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7pm Conference Dinner, Naughton's Hotel, Parkville. No cost to presenters to attend the dinner; non-presenters will be charged restaurant prices. 
 
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Saturday 1st October, Wyselaskie Auditorium (29 College Cres. Parkville) 
 
Session 6) 9–10:30am: Issues in the seventeenth century (Chair: David Irving) 
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Emily Hagen (University of North Texas): 'A new methodology to define the relationship between music and emotion in early Venetian opera.' 
Stephen Grant (University of Melbourne): 'Heinrich Schütz: Text, music an affective delivery.'
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Daniela Kaleva (University of South Australia): 'Performing in stile rappresentativo: The case of 'Lamento d'Arianna.' 

Morning tea, 10:30-10:45am
 
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Session 7) 10:45-11:45am: Eighteenth-century opera (Chair: Emily Hagen)
Alan Maddox (University of Sydney): 'Eighteenth-century opera and the history of emotions.' 
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Erin Helyard (University of Melbourne): 'The new attentiveness: Rethinking eighteenth-century audience behaviour at the opera.'  
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Light lunch, 11:45-12 noon 

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Session 8) 12 noon–2pm: Contemporary productions, contemporary issues (Chair: Daniela Kaleva)
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Michael Halliwell (University of Sydney): 'Faith as emotional expression: Jake Heggie's The End of the Affair.' 
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Paul Smith (University of New England): 'Queer practice and performativity: Exploring queer emotions through operatic performance and interpretation.' 
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Vincent Plush (University of Adelaide): 'The mystical communion of Voss and Laura in the opera Voss.' 
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Jane Davidson, Joseph Browning and Frederic Kiernan (University of Melbourne): 'From historical to contemporary emotions in Voyage to the Moon.' 
 
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Conference close, 2pm
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Wyselaskie Auditorium

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