Participatory Opera

Power and Agency in Post-Wagnerian Performance
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-39024-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera

Through the examination of participatory elements, theories, and practices, this book defines participatory opera, explores ways it challenges traditional roles of “audience,” “performer,” and “author,” and situates Euro-American participatory opera within the broader context of participatory philosophy, theory, and art of the twentieth century. Part I examines key philosophies and theories surrounding audience participation throughout the twentieth century. Part II draws together the diverse practices and approaches described in the previous chapters towards a unifying theory of participatory opera through several focused case studies of twenty-first-century participatory operas. Overall, this book reveals participatory opera as a contested site of meaning and intention, particularly agile and adaptive, and inherently value-laden, political, and antagonistic.

Academic yet accessible, this book is primarily intended for scholars and graduate students, although professionals and practitioners may also find it appealing. Opera scholars will find this book addresses a critical element of contemporary opera. Likewise, scholars of participatory art will find it reveals that opera, too, engages with participatory practices and histories and should be incorporated into discourses surrounding participatory art. Scholars of experimental and avant-garde music and theater will find this text re-examines the relationship between opera and experimental art and theater.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Practice & Development, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Caton, Kathryn L.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Opernmusik
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Opera and Participation

Part One: The Rhetoric of Participation

1. Participation and Power, 2. Towards Theater: The Art-Life Merger, 3. Discoursing Site-Specific and Participatory Values

Part Two: Participatory Opera in the Twenty-First Century

4. Between Rhetoric and Reality: Participation in Invisible Cities and Hopscotch, 5. I Want to Know You: Process, Genre, and Activism, 6. Another City: New Genre Public Opera

Conclusion: A Contested Site

Über Autor(innen)

Kathryn L. Caton is a musicologist and dramaturge for the developing University of Kentucky Opera Studio and works in the Special Collections and Rare Books Library at UK. Her research interests include experimental opera and participatory art with interdisciplinary crossovers into the worlds of social theory and media studies. She is the co-chair of the American Musicological Society Experimental Music Interest Group and serves as a member of the University of Kentucky Opera Research Alliance (UK ORA).