Színpadra állított opera
Opera in Performance

Regietheater and the Performative Turn

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I will present my approach to analysing opera productions of the so called “Regietheater” style. “Regietheater” as performance practice retains the musical dramaturgy of the work while at the same time radically questioning, re-examining, and re-contextualising the layers of meaning of an opera. It is this essentially intellectual engagement with new meanings that has increasingly brought to light — as its counterpart — the “other” way of perceiving opera performances: the experience of moments that cannot be described as a representation (or embodiment) of something, but which first and foremost triggers intense experiences and physical reactions to what has been experienced. It is this constant interplay of representation and presence that makes opera performances in general, but especially those of the so-called “Regietheater,” so fascinating and provocative. Starting from the observation of the “much-noted performative turn in the humanities”, I would like to suggest an approach that focuses on the performative dimension of opera productions. I will concentrate on the relation between the visible (bodies, gestures, images) and the audible — how these two modalities interact with each other in our perception — as well as the relation between representation and presence in live performances of “Regietheater” opera productions.

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