The Performative Features of Steve Reich’s Documentary Musical Video Theater
Abstract
The article is devoted to the comprehension of the processes of instauration of contemporary
musical theater under the impact of documentation activities and performativity. Proceeding from
the fact of intensive growth of communicative activity in contemporary society, the author asserts
the formation of the public’s demand for the actualization of content of contemporary art and
the opportunity of interactive cooperation in the process of its presentation. Drawing on Richard
Schechner’s theory of performance, the author analyzes Reich’s documentary video-operas from
the perspective of performative features in the transformation of theater. In connection with
this the author examines the question of the performative features of opera librettos, special
techniques of work with the voice and the text – such as convergence of visual-graphic and audio
forms of presentation of the text, its construction from discreet fragments of the respondents’
verbal actions, the play nature, consisting of endowing speech with melodic qualities and the
transferal of verbal intonational manifestations into instrumental ones, replacement of the
semantics of the word by its phonic form, etc. In addition, analysis is given to the following
question: how is the traditional structure of opera performance transformed under the impact
of such features of performative art as the creation of special spatial and temporal coordinates
which enhance the force of suggestibility. The widespread use of screens makes it possible for
us to unlock the conditional-theatrical space into everyday reality and change the character of
experiencing time. The result of the examined particularities is the transformation of the habitual
conditions of perception of theatrical performances, in connection with which the audience
becomes permeated with the so-called borderline state, which bears a most significant meaning
in the aesthetics of performativity.
Keywords: opera, performance, documentary musical video theater, suggestion, ritual, Steve Reich, Richard Schechner.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33779/2587-6341.2020.2.027-036
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