The Singing Intonation and the Physical Actions of an Opera Artist: an Interdisciplinary Analysis

Abstract

From the position of interdisciplinary studies, the article researches the interconnection between
singing intonation tied with physical action and the opera performer’s corporeal-physical goals in his
or her role and part. Within the framework of the systematic theory of the actor’s creativity and method
of physical actions developed by Konstantin Stanislavsky the unity of scenic action and the singer’s
perception is described. The practitioners and theoreticians of the 20th century stage arts indicate
at the perception of the “material” characteristic features of the artistic voice and the “physical”
meanings of intonations researched by contemporary stage direction in work with actors. It becomes
established that a significant amount of progress in the understanding of the art of intonating in 20th
century theater has been achieved by the actor and stage director Antonin Artaud. The author of the
article turns to the outstanding research work about musical intonation written by Boris Asafiev,
who seriously approaches the theory of musical perception, which becomes impossible without such
“physical” elements of creativity as the performer’s “perceptions” appearing in the process of living
in an imaginary reality, “thinking by means of music” and “actions by means of singing.” The article
demonstrates several techniques of stage direction and means of forming intonation, the definition
of the voice’s “texture,” as the “corporeal vibrations of the spirit” of the role and the part. The author
emphasizes that academic research of the issue of singing intonation becomes possible only from the
perspective of systematic theory, where the self-organization of complex living system undergoes a
contemporary scientific and humanitarian analysis.

Keywords: interdisciplinary analysis, singing intonation, scenic perception, the actor’s
intonation, the actor physical action, Stanislavsky’s system.