The Performance Space: Text

Are you an iPhone user or an Android user? Just kidding, I’m not going to be talking about that kind of text. Last weeks blog discussed the character building importance and approach. This week we are going to adventure into the world of text. This is probably going to be the most challenging part of the puzzle but trust me, it will all be worth it. The text is going to inform you of character choses, in-depth context to the opera and scene, and it is the most important part of communicating your intent as an artist. The break down to approaching text is simple but once you get into the nitty gritty you’ll find it can be quiet time consuming. The focus of this series, “How do you learn an Opera Aria?” is to be as efficient as possible despite the complex nature of opera.

Step 1a: Word for word translation

This step is often skipped over because it takes a lot of work. It’s also very challenging to be accurate if you aren’t fluent in the language you’re translating. Grab a dictionary and just go to town. You can use a language translator to help if you'd like, but there is something about cracking open an Italian - English dicitonary (or whatever language you’re working on) that helps solidify the information you’re working through. It can help internalize the words you’re learning a lot better. The more word for word translations you work on the more you’ll learn about the language and you’ll start memorizing a whole lot faster. There are many already completed and accurate word for word translations available, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t put in the ground work yourself. You can always use those resources to double check your work. This is probably the most time consuming step but it will prove to be instrumental in your success.

Step 1b: Poetic interpretation

Once you’ve completed your word - for - word go a head and write out a poetic version that is easier to understand in the context of you’re native language.

Step 2: IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

Well I hope you like hoppy beers.. oh way, not that kind of IPA. I really don’t recommend doing your IPA while drinking an IPA. The international phonetic alphabet is a set of symbols that helps you accurately pronounce the sound(s) within a word. If you don’t know the International Phonetic Alphabet I highly recommend you start learning it as soon as you are able. Starting with Italian is your best route because Italian is pretty darn close to already being IPA. This step may require assistance from a teacher. If you’re in need of some help well I just might know someone who can provide some direction! ;) (head to the contact page to connect with me! I’m happy to help.)

I like to take steps 1 & 2 and write/type them out like so:

Translation: I lost it, who knows where it will be
Text: L’ho perduta, me meschina! a chi sa dove sarà,
IPA: lo perduta me me me ∫ina a ki sa dove sara

Isolating the text from the music is going to build your familiarity with the language. Once you’ve completed this step, put this information directly into your practice score. I don’t recommend writing your IPA and translation into your original copy because you’ll want to have a clean copy to be able to replicate in the future. Take a photo copy of your aria so you can mark it up how you’d like.

Step 3a: Recognize the punctuation

You’ll notice in my above example that I made sure to write in the punctuation and the accents. Don’t skip out on reviewing the punctuation in the text. My above example shows an exclamation after the word “meschina” which tells me I’ll need to have some variation of an excited expression. Also, there is a comma after “sarà” which indicates the statement is not yet finished. Remember, we are still in the phase of understanding the words and language outside of musical context. Use every tool you’re given so you can make the best artist choices for your performance.

Step 3b: Walk your text

Now that you’ve combed through all the text and punctuation it’s time to get physical. Do you need this step to effectively learn and memorize your music? Of course not. However, this is a great exercise to help internalize all your hard work. What you’re going to do is give a physical action to each punctuation mark. I’m sure there is a set list of actions for this exercise somewhere out there on the internet, but I’m going to give you creative freedom on this one. Just be sure to have each action make sense to you. Here are some examples:

comma- turn
period - stomp
exclamation- jump

You’re going to aimlessly roam about your space (living room, practice room, wherever!) slowly speaking through the text and taking a step for each syllable. When you come to a punctuation mark you’re going to insert your action. This is where having a written out copy of text without the music will come in handy. After walking through the text a few times see if you can start walking it without looking at the words. And you don’t have to start beginning to end each time. Pick the most challenging memory spot and drill it a couple of times separate from the rest of the text.

(Optional) Step 4: Poetic meter

I’m mentioning this step because so far everything thing we’ve covered can be directly applied to art song as well. An opera aria has a libretto so the text is going to be more speech like; an art song, however, usually (not always) deals with poetry. Taking the time to sort out the poetic meter and structure will only improve your understanding and connection to the text. If you’re working on a well known art song then you’ll be able to find this information relatively easy. Go a head and do a little research and learn some cool stuff.

Hopefully by this point you’re pretty close to having memorized text and you haven’t even dug into the music yet! Going through this entire process is going to make putting it all together SO much easier. No one said learning an opera aria (or any vocal music at that!) would be easy but we certainly can be efficient in our practices!

-Laura