VOCAL WRITING

Fellows learn to write for the operatic voice through detailed group feedback sessions of their work with the Composers & the Voice Resident Ensemble of six professional singers who have been selected based on their superior technical and musical skills, as well as their commitment to developing and performing new works. The ensemble is comprised of one each of the basic operatic/vocal categories: Coloratura Soprano, Lyric Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Baritone and Bass.

The composers and librettists work with each singer, one at a time, in rotation, learning how their particular voice works throughout its range, addressing issues of tessitura, negotiating the passagio, demands for vowel modification, and how these affect their performance of text.  The participants write solo works with piano accompaniment for each singer which are performed and discussed by the entire group on how well suited the composition is to the voice, and the clarity of its text setting.

LIBRETTO WRITING

Fellows will analyze both traditional and contemporary scores and libretti while discussing and experimenting with word choice, rhyme, meter, story structure, character archetypes, and more. Throughout the first year, composers and librettists work on creating the outline and synopsis for their final project – a complete 15–20-minute opera using up to three of the voice types and piano, with two public, semi-staged “Six Scenes” concerts during the second year.

CREATIVE APPROACHES – Improvisation and Acting

A unique aspect of the C&V workshop season are our classes on Improv and Acting for opera writers, physical sessions that explore new approaches to their creativity. In our Improv Sessions, fellows get on their feet (and the floor and on chairs) to discover the mind-opening world of improvisational thinking. With so many forms and structures, how can artists think outside the box? How can we tap into individual creativity in a highly collaborative art form? How can a group think as one creative entity in pursuit of telling a story? Our Improv studies are a fun, exciting, and boundary-breaking journey into our creative potential. In our Acting sessions, composers and librettists approach opera through the mind of the performer creating a character. By learning to ask the subjective questions of characters, we discover the roots of why we tell and listen to stories. What do I want? Why do I want it? How will I get it? Fellows learn to analyze text from the inside out, explore various acting techniques, and discover what the world looks like from the point of view of the stage.

PUBLIC PERFORMANCES

C&V workshop sessions are closed to the public to maintain an environment of honesty and experimentation. At the end of the workshop sessions, the public is welcomed to two sets of public performances of work created during the program, performed by the C&V Resident Ensemble of Singers. The first set of concerts, First Glimpse, features selected solo works written during the course of the workshops for each singer’s specific voice. Six Scenes features semi-staged operas-in-development also written during the course of the workshops.

ARTISTIC CHAIRS (MENTORS)

Each season we are very fortunate to have established composers and librettists who serve as Artistic Chairs for our C&V fellows.  We pair each C&V fellow with one Artistic Chair and work to build a personal and professional connection between them.  While this is not a formal mentorship, in some cases it has developed into one.  Our goal is to introduce two creators who we feel have shared artistic views, and to allow each relationship to grow naturally.  Each chair has agreed to at least one face-to-face meeting during the season, as schedules allow, and to be available as a sounding board and resource.