Löfgren ICCA23: The interactional history of proposals at opera rehearsals

As part of the Interactional Histories panel at ICCA2023, Löfgren is presenting on the development of depictions in opera rehearsals.

Abstract:

This paper targets opera performer proposals of dramatic actions – actions to be carried out on stage to music in the service of portraying the characters. The performers both describe and depict (Clark, 2016) their proposals, and this paper investigates how the turn design of the proposals changes over time as the proposals develop dialogically with the director and other performers. The data consists of a corpus of 20 hours of video recorded opera rehearsals in Swedish, English and Italian and the method is multimodal interaction analysis.

Previous research on theatre rehearsals has investigated how fragments of the performance develop across the span of the rehearsal period (Hazel, 2018; Norrthon, 2019). Long-term interactional change has also been studied during driving lessons (Broth et al., 2017; Deppermann, 2018). This paper focuses on segments of opera rehearsals during which performers propose dramatic actions. Iterations of proposals on the same scene are analyzed. The analysis shows how participants add further variations through different resources with each iteration. Thus, a proposal of what a performer can do when singing a certain libretto line might start with a verbal description such as ‘on the knees would be nice or I could lay down next to her”. The performer may in subsequent stages depict certain aspects of the proposals, by for instance lying down next to the co-performer, while still simultaneously describing the proposal. In final iterations, the proposal is usually depicted both through visual and vocal means as the proposer lies down next to the co-performer while singing the libretto line in question.

In addition to revealing the progressive nature of depictive states of proposals, studying the proposals over time makes it evident how they are collaborative accomplishments. Although in the local proposal sequence it may appear that the performer is the author of the proposal, the interactional history shows that several participants have been involved in the development of the proposal as it materializes at a particular moment in time. The paper thus reveals the benefits of scrutinizing extended time frames and taking interactional histories into account when studying the turn design of proposals during opera rehearsals. It contributes to research on how participants develop projects over the long term.

References

Broth, M., Cromdal, J. & Levin, L. (2017). Starting Out as a Driver: Progression in Instructed Pedal Work, In: Mäkitalo, Å., Linell, P & Säljö, R. (Eds.), Memory Practices and Learning: Interactional, Institutional and Sociocultural Perspectives, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 113-143.

Clark, H. H. (2016). Depiction as a method for communication. Psychological Review, 123(3), pp. 324-347.

Depperman, A. (2018). Changes in turn-design over interactional histories – the case of instructions in driving school lessons. In: Depperman, A. & Streeck, J. (Eds.), Time in Embodied Interaction, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 293-324.

Hazel, S. (2018). Discovering interactional authenticity: Tracking theatre practitioners across rehearsals. In: Pekarek Doehler, S., Wagner, S. & González-Martínez, E. (Eds), Longitudinal Studies on the Organization of Social Interaction. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 255-283.

Norrthon, S. (2019). To stage an overlap – The longitudinal, collaborative and embodied process of staging eight lines in a professional theatre rehearsal process. Journal of Pragmatics, 142, pp. 171-184.