Revisiting Baroque Gesture in the Twenty-First Century

In my opera training in Australia in the 2000s, my acting coaches instilled in me the principle of finding the motivation for the stage movement for my character through studying the text (the words) and its subtext (underlying meanings). The aim as I understood it was to react “honestly”, so that a relevant movement would follow. Now, as an opera singer who for many years has performed in baroque operas with historically informed music and yet contemporary staging, I see recurring problems during the rehearsal period and in performance: what is seen must suit the director’s contemporary intentions and taste for realism, while what is heard must exhibit the conductor’s knowledge of historical performance and the singer’s world class singing ability, ideally showcasing virtuosic ability. As an opera singer my primary focus is to sing well, with ease and agility. To sing with ease, I must also focus on my stage craft (acting), planning movements which positively influence my breath flow and vocalisations. Throughout my career I have noticed that my training in stage craft has not completely given me all the tools I require to perform, in particular, eighteenth-century opera with contemporary staging.

For me, the question remains of how to act convincingly while singing my best. How can singers find a better balance between the old and the new? Are there ways of successfully uniting the musical gestures of historical practice embraced within these performances with physical gestures advised in earlier periods for expressive acting? Could this unification be beneficial to me as a singer when expressing intensely dramatic moments in pre-romantic opera, or when the text of an aria is repeated due to musical convention and I feel the need to vary and develop the expression?

In this research project I investigate the use of physical historical gestures as a way to address issues I have encountered, such as when I move in ways that respond passionately to the drama, but find it is compromising my vocal ability, or when multiple repeats of the words do not seem to follow natural patterns of thought and are therefore difficult to align with a director’s request for “realistic” communication and “realistic” staging. In this exegesis and in my recital, I explore the possibilities for incorporating the principles of baroque gesture and acting styles within contemporary stagings of pre-romantic operas. I examine the limitations and specific benefits of these gestural styles to the singer as a physical performer, using as my guide the published works of Dene Barnett, The Art of Gesture: The Practices and Principles of 18th Century Acting (Barnett 1987), John Bulwer, Chirologia, or the Natural Language of the Hand (Bulwer 1644), and Johannes Jelgerhuis, Theoretische Lessen over de Gesticulatie en Mimiek (Jelgerhuis 1827). I chose to focus on these sources after discussing the topic and my study materials with baroque specialist performers in Australia and New Zealand who recommended the Barnett and Jelgerhuis texts. In addition to these works I included John Bulwer’s treatise from the seventeenth century, because I found his many images of gestures, particularly hand gestures, particularly compelling.

My research approach is one of critical self-observation and self-reflection, with case studies discussing my process and reflections as I attempted to apply physical gestures selected from the sources expressively while singing the arias. I demonstrate this practically through the recital and discuss the findings in this written exegesis, providing a seasoned performer’s perspective on the effects, benefits and limitations of the use of such gestures. I argue that certain gestures are universally-understood and enhance the performance by not only conserving the singer’s voice and improving breath control, but by increasing communication with the audience, no matter how close or distant they are, through the combination of persuasive sonic and visual gesture.