Abstract
This chapter discusses the creative development of engaging both story and character within a practice-led PhD research project. This project involved the creation of an opera for children, Beyond the Wall, which premiered in workshop form at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in December 2017. The research aim of this project was how a creative, theoretical and conceptual approach to children’s opera could be reconsidered, increasing the relevance, appeal and comprehension of a new work for children. Due to the paucity of originally devised children’s operatic works, and the lack of scholarly discussion around methods utilised for opera creation in both adult and children’s opera genres, various interdisciplinary solutions were found during the project to facilitate the creative process. A complex conceptual and theoretical framework, designed specifically around the three key areas of relevance, appeal and comprehension, informed the story and characterisation modelling as they shaped the broader work. Drawing upon these sources, this chapter broadly encompasses the development of innovative methodological tools and research strategies to assist composers to develop a more child centred-approach to the creative process, producing more engaging work for youth in the children’s operatic genre, and beyond.
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Notes
- 1.
Emma Michelle Jayakumar, “Beyond the Wall: An Opera for Children in 2 Acts – And – Toward a More Engaging Operatic Genre for Children: An Exegesis” (PhD diss., Edith Cowan University, 2018), https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2149.
- 2.
Jacqueline Rose, “The Case of Peter Pan or: The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction,” in The Children’s Culture Reader, ed. Henry Jenkins (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 58.
- 3.
Jeanne Klein and Shifra Schonmann, “Questioning Kitsch and the Myth of Future Theatre Audiences” (Conference paper presented at the Association Internationale du Théâtre de l’Enfance et la Jeunesse International Congress and Forum, Malmö, Sweden, May 20, 2011).
- 4.
Paul Barker, Composing for Voice: A Guide for Composers, Singers, and Teachers (New York: Routledge, 2014), 169.
- 5.
Carol Gray, “Inquiry through Practice: Developing Appropriate Research Strategies,” in No Guru, No Method?: Discussion on Art and Design Research, ed. P. Strandman (Helsinki, University of Art and Design Helsinki, 1998), 3.
- 6.
Notable Australian practice-led research exemplars of influence to this study include, Lyndall Adams, “The Indeterminate Precision of Narrative” (PhD diss., Southern Cross University, 2008). Brad Haseman and Daniel Mafe, “Acquiring Know-how: Research Training for Practice-led Researchers,” ed. Hazel Smith and R. T. Dean, Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 211–28 and David Fenton, “Unstable Acts: Old, New and Appropriated Methodologies,” in Live Research: Methods of Practice-led Inquiry in Performance, ed. Leah Mercer, Julie Robson and David Fenton (Brisbane: Ladyfinger Press, 2011), 33–47.
- 7.
The concept of arts-going ‘habitus,’ as opposed to just simply ‘habits’ is used as it implies a more complex understanding of our early and ongoing relationships with artforms, and acknowledges the vital role arts education, appreciation, and family members play in nurturing positive experiences with art and culture. Arts habitus is articulated well by children’s theatre scholar Matthew Reason in his seminal publication The Young Audience, as he integrates Bourdieu’s two primary factors of cultural habitus—arts education, which provides varying levels of cultural ‘capital,’ and family inheritance. Reason elaborates that our seeking out of exposure to certain kinds of cultural events is “not random or even necessarily wholly self-aware but instead deeply ingrained into our predispositions and inclinations,” Matthew Reason, The Young Audience: Exploring and Enhancing Children’s Experiences of Theatre (London: Institute of Education Press, 2010), 24.
- 8.
Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishing, 1994), 18.
- 9.
Jeanne Klein, “Applying Research to Artistic Practices: This is Not a Pipe Dream,” Youth Theatre Journal 7, no. 3 (1993): 13.
- 10.
Klein, “Applying Research to Artistic Practices,” 13.
- 11.
Klein, “Applying Research to Artistic Practices,” 13.
- 12.
Klein, “Applying Research to Artistic Practices,” 13.
- 13.
Allen Laurence Cohen and Steven L Rosenhaus, Writing Musical Theater (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); Lajos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972).
- 14.
Paul A Robinson, Opera & Ideas: from Mozart to Strauss (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986), 263.
- 15.
Jed Horace Davis and Mary Jane Evans, Theatre, Children and Youth (New Orleans: Anchorage Press, 1987).
- 16.
Davis and Evans, Theatre, Children and Youth, 55.
- 17.
Gary Schmidgall, Literature as Opera (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 10.
- 18.
Donald Grout and Hermine Weigel Williams, A Short History of Opera (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), ii.
- 19.
Cohen and Rosenhaus, Writing Musical Theater, 18.
- 20.
Cohen and Rosenhaus, Writing Musical Theater, 18.
- 21.
Sandra Corse, Opera and the Uses of Language: Mozart, Verdi, and Britten (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1987); Joseph Kerman, Opera as Drama (London: Oxford University Press, 1957); Ulrich Weisstein, “The Libretto as Literature,” in Selected Essays on Opera (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006), 3–16.
- 22.
Schmidgall, Literature as Opera, 14.
- 23.
Schmidgall, Literature as Opera, 11.
- 24.
Schmidgall, Literature as Opera, 11.
- 25.
Schmidgall, Literature as Opera, 11.
- 26.
Schmidgall, Literature as Opera, 11.
- 27.
Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting (York: Methuen, 2014).
- 28.
McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, 379.
- 29.
McKee’s own more general visual model for cast design is contained in McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, 380.
- 30.
Colin Ware, Information Visualization: Perception for Design (Boston: Morgan Kaufmann, 2019), 2.
- 31.
Carole Gray and Julian Malins, Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), 1.
- 32.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Der Hölle Rache,” in Die Zauberflöte, ed. Heinz Moehn (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1970), 127.
- 33.
May Gibbs, The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Commemorative ed. (Sydney: Harper Collins, 2007).
- 34.
Gibbs, The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
- 35.
Jenny Simpson, Awesome International Arts Festival for Bright Young Things: Digital Program (2020), accessed January 21, 2021, https://program.awesomearts.com.
References
Adams, Lyndall. “The Indeterminate Precision of Narrative.” PhD diss., Southern Cross University, 2008.
Barker, Paul. Composing for Voice: A Guide for Composers, Singers, and Teachers. New York: Routledge, 2014.
Cohen, Allen Laurence, and Steven L Rosenhaus. Writing Musical Theater. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Corse, Sandra. Opera and the Uses of Language: Mozart, Verdi, and Britten. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1987.
Davis, Jed Horace, and Mary Jane Evans. Theatre, Children and Youth. New Orleans: Anchorage Press, 1987.
Egri, Lajos. The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.
Fenton, David. “Unstable Acts: Old, New and Appropriated Methodologies.” In Live Research: Methods of Practice-Led Inquiry in Performance, edited by Leah Mercer, Julie Robson and David Fenton, 33–47. Brisbane: Ladyfinger Press, 2011.
Gibbs, May. The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Commemorative ed. Sydney: Harper Collins, 2007.
Gray, Carol. “Inquiry Through Practice: Developing Appropriate Research Strategies.” In No Guru, No Method?: Discussion on Art and Design Research, edited by P. Strandman, 82–95: Helsinki: The University of Art and Design Helsinki, 1998.
Gray, Carole, and Julian Malins. Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
Grout, Donald, and Hermine Weigel Williams. A Short History of Opera. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
Haseman, Brad, and Daniel Mafe. “Acquiring Know-How: Research Training for Practice-Led Researchers.” In Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts, edited by Hazel Smith and R. T. Dean, 211–28. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
Jayakumar, Emma Michelle. “Beyond the Wall: An Opera for Children in 2 Acts – And – Toward a More Engaging Operatic Genre for Children: An Exegesis.” PhD diss., Edith Cowan University, 2018. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2149.
Kerman, Joseph. Opera as Drama. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Klein, Jeanne. “Applying Research to Artistic Practices: This Is Not a Pipe Dream.” Youth Theatre Journal 7.3 (1993): 13–17.
Klein, Jeanne, and Shifra Schonmann. “Questioning Kitsch and the Myth of Future Theatre Audiences.” Conference paper presented at the Association Internationale du Théâtre de l’Enfance et la Jeunesse (ASSITJ) International Congress and Forum, Malmö, Sweden, May 20, 2011.
McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. York: Methuen, 2014.
Miles, Matthew B, and A Michael Huberman. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishing, 1994.
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. “Der Hölle Rache.” In Die Zauberflöte, edited by Heinz Moehn, 127–32. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1970.
Reason, Matthew. The Young Audience: Exploring and Enhancing Children’s Experiences of Theatre. London: Institute of Education Press, 2010.
Robinson, Paul A. Opera & Ideas: From Mozart to Strauss. New York: Cornell University Press, 1986.
Rose, Jacqueline. “The Case of Peter Pan or: The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction.” In The Children’s Culture Reader, edited by Henry Jenkins, 58–66. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
Schmidgall, Gary. Literature as Opera. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Simpson, Jenny. Awesome International Arts Festival for Bright Young Things: Digital Program (2020). Accessed January 21, 2021. https://program.awesomearts.com.
Ware, Colin. Information Visualization: Perception for Design. Boston: Morgan Kaufmann, 2019.
Weisstein, Ulrich. “The Libretto as Literature.” In Selected Essays on Opera, edited by Walter Bernhart, 3–16. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006.
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Jayakumar, E. (2022). Children’s Opera in the Twenty-First Century: The Child-Centred Approach to Writing. In: Kouvaras, L., Grenfell, M., Williams, N. (eds) A Century of Composition by Women. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95557-1_21
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