Operatic Acting

by Bruce Schoonmaker

Opera singers perform well until they think about singing.

--Richard Boldrey

The primary objective in operatic acting is to convince the audience that you are someone
you are not, and to do so while you participate in the operatic convention of singing words
that in real life (or spoken drama) would normally be spoken. One needs to act so
convincingly that the audience becomes unaware of this convention and engages only in the
drama and the beauty of the music.

What are the precepts of this acting? What are the basic rules or procedures involved in
acting? It is easier to describe what acting is not. Acting is not pretending, because in acting
we bring out what is truly inside us; it is not pretense. At the same time, it is not
naturalistic, because the people we portray do not act necessarily as we would act in the
same situation. And the natural boundaries of the stage inhibit reality. Actors portray
characters, trying to bring them to life, to make them believable for the audience during the
tenure of the play. Actors interpret the characters for the audience, bringing the richness of
their experience to the portrayal, highlighting aspects of the character's personality and
physicality that are important in comprehending the underlying themes and messages of the
opera.

Operatic acting means acting while singing in an opera. It means more than that because
singing in an opera implies a wholeness of functioning that transforms acting into
something different from acting in a spoken drama. The element of music and the physical
act of singing demand so much emotional involvement and physical discipline that acting
in opera becomes its own art, related to singing and related to acting, yet distinct.

We act all the time.

Each moment in life is fraught with emotional and cognitive choices, and we choose,
consciously and unconsciously, how we react to circumstances. We don't think of acting
because it is so obvious, because it would be like thinking of chewing while chewing. It is
so inherent a function of human life that we lose track of it and become so mired among the
trees that we cannot see the forest, the broader perspective.

Ironically the best actors try to stop "acting," and try to speak or sing or move or act
without pretense. The best acting is not acting, or non-acting. Zen expresses this concept,
"Do nothing." It feels like doing less than acting and doing more than pretending. It feels
like being more myself and less my character, but equating my feelings and delivery, my
"actions" with the actions of the character I portray. It bespeaks the wealth of human
experience that each of us contains, because we can portray anyone and any situation.
Within each of us lies universal experience from which we draw the necessary ingredients
for characterization. So the character speaks through us, taking over our thoughts and
actions; we become the vehicle by which this character finds expression in reality.

I worked with a friend in Cosi Fan Tutte (she played Dorabella) to get her to stop
pretending and deliver the lines more sincerely. When she broke through powerfully into
playing the moment, she stopped, surprised, and said out-of-character, "But that's not acting
at all, that's me!" She shocked herself in realizing the power of what she had done. She was
trying less and accomplishing more. She labored less and acted more powerfully.

In developing a character, I first try to create any emotional and psychic involvement,
projecting feelings with energy and not worrying about how accurate they are to the
character, but loosening the disbelief in my ability to draw from the mythic depths of
experience that lie within us. I think of it as allowing myself to be a bad actor, one who is
indicating or pretending to be someone else. At some point I begin the intuitive process of
making the character me, or making me the character--I'm not sure which--and grounding
the greater involvement of altered state into my being and a heightened energy level into
my actions. I know this is happening by the fact that I do less and less and select those
indicators or feelings and physicalizations that seem most appropriate (with the help of the
director, or sometimes despite the director) and I work toward non-acting, toward becoming
myself more and more.

The ground rules of operatic acting are that one must sing and act with total commitment.
You must commit yourself physically; also, you must commit yourself emotionally and
mentally. Opera requires that we transcend "everyday-ness" and create peak moments
emotionally, physically, and mentally. The energy required to sing over an orchestra allows
us to act more powerfully.

Opera seems strange not because it is less real than everyday life, but because it is more
real.

At some point we must surrender ourselves to our roles, feeling the characters take us over
and play us, rather than we playing characters. Breathing and breath energy form the
meeting place where technique, interpretation, intuition and inspiration meet. We inspire
our roles with breath energy. By this means we deliver "inspired" performances
consistently. Some people scoff at this idea and claim that we cannot maintain inspiration,
but to some degree, by breathing and creating this flow of light, distilled energy, we inspire
ourselves constantly, and thereby portray our characters more vividly.

The ideas that I first impose on myself create certain emotional gestures within me that
seem appropriate to the dramatic situation. At that point, I try to repeat not the
physicalizations or the inflection of language or song, but to repeat the emotional gesture,
the impulse. In fact, I try to amplify that impulse and gesture so that what happens
externally (outside my mind) becomes fresh and projects to the back of the performing hall.
As performers, we are responsible for accuracy and spontaneity in our performing, so that
we accurately repeat over and over the intentions of the composer and director while
imbuing our performances with spontaneity, emotional and mental freshness, convincing
the audience that this is the first time we have sung or spoken the words in this way. By
observing the emotional gesture within us, the impulse responsible for actions and for the
words that we utter, we form an intuitive technique for repeating spontaneity.

We need to be aware also of the intuitive flow of drama. Drama occurs in tempo, a flow
that naturally rises and subsides with the intensity of the action and its direction at the
moment. Singers need to learn to recognize and develop this flow and to know that it is
distinct from the tempo of the music. Like musical tempo, the dramatic tempo can quicken
or slow, and we need to take responsibility for manipulating the audience's sense of time.
Sean Connery states,

The main concern for an actor, writer, or musician, is the removal of time...When
you are totally absorbed in a play, a film or music, and you don't know what time it
is or how long it has been going on, then you'll usually find there is contentment and
happiness. When an artist can suspend time like that for an audience, he has
succeeded.

When we sing art songs, we act, but without props, costumes, scenery or external action.
Songs require the same complete sincerity of delivery. One must strive to make the
dramatic concept more important than the music, because drama precedes music. Music
always evolves from drama. In songs the visible iceberg of drama is smaller (no costumes,
sets, often no continuous plot), but the breadth of drama remains the same as in an opera
and the audience must sense this hidden mass in the way we perform.

Actors need to learn to interpret correctly their internal cues at the moment of transition
from pretense to acting, to naturalness. Almost all of us have negative emotional responses
to this moment, otherwise we would exist at this level all the time. Breaking through the
barrier into the void of the mythic universe within us leaves a residual negative feeling at
the everyday level of existence. I feel open to threat, suddenly vulnerable. Another person's
cue may be a feeling of foolishness. We learn as actors to place these cues on our shoulder
and to get to know them well, so that when they raise their heads, we say hello and go on
about our work, knowing that their uncomfortable presence is a sign that we are doing
something right.

Acting resembles martial arts in this aspect. We learn in martial arts to build our strength,
energy, and confidence and we learn where we have limited ourselves by our fears.
Breaking through those fears allows us to grow: Fear normally serves as a sign that our
psyches want to grow and expand. So these feelings that limit expansion become our
friends, saying to us, "Yes, you're going in the right direction because you feel this way."

We can only essay to keep removing insincerity from our performance, from our delivery
of lines and melody, of musical phrase. Never should the audience be first aware of the
beauty of our voices or of our technique; they should always be caught up in the drama or
the music or the expression of the internal depths. Only in the background should they
notice the beauty and transcendence of what is happening.

Much of what is rich about singing-acting is sharing the stage with others who have the
same goal, who are singing-acting while we are. We inspire one another, building energy
and becoming stronger because there are two or more gathered in the same creation of
beauty. I carry the dramatic focus and pass it to another, who carries it and passes it back to
me.

Developing the character during rehearsals

I find myself working from the top down, starting with vocal expression and the eyes and
face, then bringing in the arms and torso and finally how the character walks. The
emotional analogue to this process reveals itself this way: I try on different surface patterns
of emotions with each action and each line, discarding what doesn't work, then deepening
the selected emotions and amplifying the internal emotional gesture out of which grows the
words and actions. So both the physical characterization and the emotional characterization
deepen during the rehearsal process.

The intuitive rhythm of the character

Each character and opera and scene has an intuitive rhythm to it. Each speech or aria has an
intuitive rhythm to it based on the drama inherent in it, the intensity of that drama and the
quality of it coloring each moment. If the actor portraying the character finds the
appropriate rhythm, the characterization quickens and solidifies. Relations have a rhythm to
them and it is important for dialogue (duets) to find the quality of rhythm that allows each
character individuality while setting the tempo of the relationship.

Precipitating actions

The director and actor must seek the appropriate precipitating action for each action or line
in the drama. What provokes the action? What provokes the words at that moment? It can
come externally or internally, within the character himself. It can happen immediately
before the action, some moments before, or years before. I feel that this process determines
the difference between good and excellent productions. Finding the precipitating action
deepens the dramatic evolution as much or more than finding the emotional gesture within
the character deepens the characterization. Precipitating actions can be passive or active;
the quality given them by the director and actors often determines the success of the
subsequent action.

The drama must be more important than the music and the singing

Rarely should the audience be more focused on the beauty of the singer's voice than on the
situation, conflict, or motivation. Corollary: The singer should always be more focused on
the drama than on the music or her singing.
Taking risks

Great actors risk heightening their emotions to the point of looking ludicrous or feeling
uncomfortable. Often it is the emotional gesture before the action or speech that must be
amplified in order for the freshness of the drama to evoke itself and to become real at-that-
moment to both actor and audience. One must feel the greatness of drama internally before
acting externally. In Aikido, we learn to attack with the mind first before attacking with the
body. This gives psychic power to the physical action and brings a wholeness to the energy
involved in the action.

Great actors embrace failure. They learn to try in rehearsal so many ideas and to extend
their feelings so far that their characterization fails. Only by extending themselves beyond
the balance of consistency-spontaneity do they learn where that balance lies. Barry Stevens
said it best in Don't Push the River:

When I was small, one of the things that puzzled me was that when I saw something
that I wanted to try, and did it, sometimes the grownups said that I was bright,
sometimes that I was silly. A little later, with people outside the family who did not
love me as my family did, it was sometimes I was "bright" sand sometimes I was
"stupid." I couldn't understand at first what made the difference. As I went into
doing things, they looked the same to me. Gradually I learned that "bright" or "silly"
depended not on how it looked to me when I went into it, but on how it came out.
That was puzzling to me, because how it came out was something that I never knew
until after I had done it. I did things to see what would happen. So how could I be
"bright" when it came out one way, and "silly" when it came out another? I was the
same both ways, it seemed to me.

Later on I learned, especially in school, to value "success" and to hide "failure" so

that I wouldn't be scolded or ridiculed. That wasn't the way that I started out, when
both were interesting, and failure was sometimes more stimulating than success
because it raised more questions. When I turned my mind to concealing failure--
being clever about it--I didn't notice the questions any more.

As I pointed out in the previous essay, one must establish for oneself a working atmosphere
in developing a character dramatically and musically that allows sufficient room for failures
and successes. No road to a successful performance should exist without lots of failures
lined along side of it.

Dramatic beats

These are those moments where an internal decision is made or where we change internally
before acting. When a director says to an actor, "We need to see the light bulb go on before
you do this," she refers to the dramatic beat. For many actors, one of their first goals in
studying a score is to find the dramatic beats, to define them, and to figure how to
implement them properly.
Opera seems unreal not because it is less real than reality, but because it is more real. It is
one peak moment after another, important moments that affect the plot immensely. Our
decisions, in portraying characters, are vital ones, not mundane and threadbare. We must
take personal risks in achieving characterization. When I direct, I must take personal risks
in achieving the necessary level of psychic involvement to bring about true creativity in the
unfolding process of drama.

Some brief rules:

The dramatic reason for singing: You must have a good reason for singing. You must
convince the audience (and yourself) that you can only express what you are trying to get
across by singing. Otherwise you would simply have spoken the words.

Quiet doesn't mean small.

Don't blend. Don't apply choral concepts to singing opera.

Don't breathe passively. Don't breathe chorally. Don't sing chorally. Try to make the
breathing a natural part of the characterization. Perhaps this character breathes deeply.
Perhaps what she says at a particular moment extends her breathing in the same way that
the singer playing her extends her breathing.

Take the momentum from one another as you gain the dramatic focus. Acting on stage is
like playing basketball: one player handles the ball, then passes it to another. In the same
way, one person dominates the drama (controls the dramatic focus), then passes that focus
to another.

Feel the meter in half the time that the conductor is directing. If he conducts in 4, feel the
beat in 2.

When you are the primary musical material, sing as if you are the primary musical material.

Always match or exceed the momentum of the conductor.

Mozart: Sing grace notes on the beat. Young singers make the mistake of singing grace
notes too fast and unsupported.

In ensembles, do not match the phrasing of other voices. Make the dramatic sense of your
melody into your own distinct phrasing.
#20 Acting for Singers
Bay Area Opera and Musical Theater Director David Ostwald
has written a fine text book “Acting for Singers”, subtitled
Creating Believable Singing Characters, available through
Oxford University Press.

This is a well-designed systematic approach which clarifies a

sequence of steps one can follow to develop convincing
characters and interpretations in opera, musical theater, art
songs and auditions.

One learns how to analyze the dramatic structure of a piece,

fashion a theme statement, define the character’s super-
objective and motivate the character’s actions from moment to
moment.

The exercises are all given in the context of the special

requirements of the singer; to help them remain un-entangled
with physical tensions that may arise in expressing emotions so
that they may maintain their vocal flexibility.

Included in the book are exercises for the individual, as well

activities for groups in the acting class setting.

A regular director for many of the regional companies of the Bay

Area, including BASOTI and West Bay Opera, Ostwald’s unique
approach to finding the through line of a characters’
development leads to inspired and inspiring productions.

Ostwald’s Ten Maxims of Believable Singing Acting are:

 1. Your characters believe they’re real people
2. Your music is your characters’ feelings
3. All humans have a common reservoir of feelings
4. You are always you
5. If you don’t let it show, the audience can’t know
6. You are making art
7. Believable characters engage your audience
8. You make your characters believable by endowing them
with convincing, apparently spontaneous , re-creations
of real human behavior.
9. Play the minutiae of what’s happenin
10. Never try to repeat results

Try This:

When looking at a piece of vocal music this week notice

how your interpretive skills are improved by looking for
answers to these questions:

Where is the character?

When in history and in the lifetime of the character is

this event occurring?

Who is the character in relation to others?

What does your character want?

Why do they want it?

What is the theme of the piece (love, jealously, joy, fear,

etc.)?

Have a very fine week, and rest from your labors!

Sarah
Trinity College of Music, London

Character Development and Acting

Technique for Singers in Performance
"In order to become professional singers,
persons must have exceptional voices, a
sound musical background and natural
acting ability ."
"Dancing, playing a musical instrument or
acting are part of singers' training and
good singers are often full-fledged actors
and musicians." (www.career-
descriptions.co.uk)
Singing is not only about producing a
pleasing and accurate tone, staying in
tempo, phrasing, and responding to the
lyrics to produce a beautiful sound.
Coupled with these and other technical
aspects of performance, singing is also
about stimulating an emotional response
from an audience, a reaction which is
identical to the affect of good acting on
those who watch, listen and appreciate its
art.
A technically talented singer with a wonderful voice can move an audience. That same
technically talented singer, when shown the techniques of acting and stagecraft, can touch,
move and inspire an audience.

Stagecraft, stage-presence, and character interpretation are essential to the art of singing, all
integrating the meaning in the text of a song to create a complete musical performance.
Singers must communicate with emotional honesty what a song is saying. The best artists
have this skill.

Successful singers connect with and involve their audience on an emotional, often
subliminal, level. There is nothing mystical about this connection; it is a technique that can
be learned.

The proposed workshops will provide the technical skills of acting and stagecraft -- of stage
presence -- and demonstrate how their successful application by a singer can transform a
good performance into a great one.

The workshops will cover:

 Stage presence -- the art of stagecraft. The importance of improvisation and of character
exploration and assimilation as a prerequisite to dramatic musical performance.
 Stagecraft and self-presentation. Awareness and appreciation of a dramatic 'self', and its
importance and application both in the audition and performance setting. The dramatic
'self' on stage and in studio, as soloist or as part of an ensemble.
 Movement -- the ability to adjust your style of movement to suit the age and gender of the
role, or to highlight the limitations and/or expectations of a specific historic or artistic
period. Analysis of and practical experimentation with stylized and naturalistic
representation.
 Performing in different spaces -- the effect of a large or small performance arena.
Adjusting the dramatic 'self' to accommodate these spatial constraints without
compromising dramatic or musical integrity.
  Analysis of music -- the skill of interpreting the dramatic content of a work and the
dramatic intent of its composer. Trusting the composition and trusting your emotional
response to it.
 Freedom of expression. The artist and the audience share common human emotions. A
performer who frees their own emotions and, in a controlled and technically responsive
way, re-presents these emotions to an audience can only achieve empathy in return.

The workshops will also provide the opportunity to focus on audition material and
preparation, as well as in-depth work on specific roles should it be required.

At no time are these workshops intended as vocal instruction. They are intended to support
and enhance the performance skills of those with good vocal technique and excellent
musical training.

In the modern performance environment, artists are more and more expected to arrive at
rehearsals as a 'complete' package. Very little time, if any, is given to character exploration
or dramatic integration. This can lead to an artistic 'experience' for an audience which is
inexplicably disparate and disjointed. By taking responsibility for your own dramatic
reality, and by learning the skills of stagecraft -- skills which are as responsive as they are
performative -- the singer can learn to 'direct' themselves. This ability to analyse a musical
text and to assimilate the emotional reality of the character represented enhances not only
the performer's impact in an audition situation, but also their impact in performance. Only
by 'owning' their skill and 'owning' their character can the singer be judged as a competent
professional by their peers, and an outstanding artist by their target audience.

THE TEN RULES OF CHARACTER

1) Your characters believe they are real people (there are internal dialogues in your physical
and emotional responses to what you are performing which are not related to the process
simply of singing).

2) Music is the characters' feelings and feelings are the characters' music (the artistic
composition should be the primary source for all the nuances of behaviour and emotion;
trust the composer and the piece: you are an interpreter).

3) Commonality of emotion among humanity -- you have all the emotions in you, and so
have the audience in them to empathize with you. Just find the freedom to express those
emotions.

4) Remain yourself -- do not deny what or who you are but respond to and transform those
aspects and

traits of your personality which need to be emphasized or subdued.

5) An audience has to have something to 'read' in a performance -- show them and they will
respond, but always as the character not as yourself.

6) It is art -- you are interpreting someone else's art and you must allow yourself to be the
vehicle for that interpretation. There is no right and wrong, just sincerity and clarity. Be
sincere and be clear.

7) If your character is believable an audience can identify and so empathize with you.
Empathy leads to arousal of emotion. Emotional response leads to an appreciation and
communication of art.

8) Convince your audience by re-creating believable, apparently spontaneous aspects of

human behaviour.

9) Acknowledge (and play) the smallest detail and the bigger picture will become clear --
the smallest action or gesture can speak volumes to an audience. Ensure that your fellow
performers are aware that their slightest response can make or break your performance.

10) Never try to repeat results -- the workshop/rehearsal process should allow you to find
the reality In performance, the spontaneity of an audience reaction or a fellow performers'
response might change or alter your own reality. With a firm understanding of your
character you can respond to this change in a new and excitingly artistic way.

KEYWORDS

Acting : 1. vbl . n . The process of carrying out into action; performance, execution.

+ 3.a. vbl . n . The performing of plays or other fictitious scenes and incidents, playing,
dramatic performance; feigning a character not one's own, simulation.

Condition : I.1.a. n . Something demanded or required as a prerequisite to the granting or

performance of something else; a provision, a stipulation.

Motivation : I.b. n . Orig. Psychol. The (conscious or unconscious) stimulus for action
towards a desired goal, esp. as resulting from psychological or social factors; the factors
giving purpose or direction to human or animal behaviour.

Performance : 4.a. n . The action of performing a play, piece of music, ceremony, etc.;
execution, interpretation.

Stage-craft : 14. n . That part of the art of dramatic composition which is concerned with
the conditions of representation on the stage.
Technique : a. Manner of artistic execution or performance in relation to formal or
practical details (as distinct from general effect, expression, sentiment, etc.); the mechanical
or formal part of an art, esp. of any of the fine arts; the manner of execution or performance
in any discipline, profession, or sport; also, skill or ability in this department of one's art;
mechanical skill in artistic or technical work (freq. used without article or qualifying word).
loosely , a skilful or efficient means of achieving a purpose; a characteristic way of
proceeding; a knack, a trick.

STANISLAVSKI'S SEVEN QUESTIONS

1) Who am I?

2) Where am I?

3) When is it?

4) What do I want?

5) Why do I want it?

6) How will I get it?

7) What do I need to overcome?

ACTING TECHNIQUE

Imagination

The combination of thought, word and deed. The objective, the through-motivation. The
deliberate act of self-expression. Develop this through improvisation. The art of
personalization. Reality and meta- reality.

The development of imagination

The act of communication.

Relaxation

Learn to relax before, during and after a performance. Warm up thoroughly, physically and
vocally, so that you are ‘up to speed' from the first moment of a performance.

Concentration

Listen and Learn.

Self and Others. Be aware of yourself and of those around you.

Acting and Reacting. Be alert to sensation, both internal and external. Be ready and willing
and free enough to react to unusual circumstances. This will come easily after
improvisation. Remember, accept and build .

Preparation

Vocalization and speech. Be aware of rhythm and variation. You might be constrained by
musical rhythm but this does not prevent you varying the ‘emotional rhythm' of a piece.

Balance

Body Awareness, postural alignment, expressive facial communication, character study,

environment. Physicality and moving in character.

Basic Body Placement

Movement

‘Hands'

Stage-craft. Integrating stage-craft and the language/music of the chosen text. Having an
understanding and intellectual awareness of the historical/social context/etiquette.

Risk. Be willing to take risks in the rehearsal process. This is the safest place for yourself
(and your fellow performers) to discover the potential of your role.

Practice.

REMEMBER: Imagination -- Relaxation -- Concentration -- Preparation