Mourning through the voice of Ottavia. Performing aesthetic experiences of a ritual

• The ritual of mourning became a central performance act in 17th century Venetian opera. According to Rosand “the lament embodied the operatic ideal” . Throughout history women mourners have traditionally been performing sounds of tears and sighs at funerals and in wailing songs from regions such as Mesopotamia, Greece, Saudi Arabia and Finnish and Russian Karelia. No matter of specific genre, vocal lamentation invites the singer to revisit lived experiences, memories and dreams, while simultaneously embodying this knowledge in the vocal performance act. Anna Renzi, one of the most celebrated singers in 17th century Venetian opera, was “endowed with such lifelike expression that her responses and speeches seem not memorized but born at the very moment.” How did she use memories, lived experiences and imagination in the very moment of performing a lamentation? As Ottavia she performed the passions of a queen in exile. As Renzi she mourned for having to leave her land and her family expelled from Rome by religious power. In this paper I exhibit a singer’s artistic process of vocally embodying Ottavia’s lament A Dio Roma from L’incoronazione di Poppea. Through the “very moment” of a performance act I demonstrate how the aesthetic experience of leaving, loosing and departing is knitted into a chaotic web of memories and imaginations linking the past with the future through presence. The purpose of this paper is to point out the importance of considering and defining the singer’s complex understanding and embodiment of aesthetic experiences when staging an opera production.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Music (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Konst (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Scenkonst (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Performing Arts (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Vocal performance

Monteverdi

Ottavia

Mourning

Venice

Ritual

17th century

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)