Ópera de mulher: projeto de encenação e interpretação musical

In the performance of a sung musical piece, in particular, an opera, the singer-actor plays a decisive role in the transmission, not only of the informative components of the musical and literary text but also of the emotional states of the characters, through non-verbal indicators or markers. In this article we present a proposal of staging project and the techniques we use to support the project theoretically. This is the interpretation of ten female soprano characters from 19th century Italian operas, composed of two arias by five Italian composers: Lucilla: “Sento talor nell'anima” [Rossini, La scala di seta (1812)]; Anna: “Giusto Ciel in tal periglio” [Rossini, Maometto II (1820)]; Norma: “Casta Diva” [Bellini, Norma (1831)]; Elvira: “Qui la voce sua soave… vien diletto” [Bellini, I Puritani (1835)]; Marie: “Ciascun lo dice” [Donizetti, La Figlia del Reggimento  (1839)]; Rita: “E’ lindo e civettin questo caro alberguccio” [Donizetti, Rita (1841)]; Gilda: “Tutte le feste al tempio” [Verdi, Rigoletto (1850)]; Oscar: “Volta la Terra...” [Verdi, Un Ballo in Maschera (1859)]; Anna: “Se come voi piccina io fossi” [Puccini, Le Villi (1884)]; Musetta: “Quando men vo” [Puccini, La Boheme (1895)]. The show lasts approximately 45 minutes and, for the arias' performance, we paid careful attention to the emotional states of each of the characters, as well as the scenography and the props. With this project, we concluded that, although vocal and technical can be well-executed, it is not possible to perform a correct interpretation of an aria from a dramatic point of view without previously knowing the character, its personality and, especially, the emotional states present in each one of the moments.