ABSTRACT
Aside from the performer (and of course the composer and librettist) the most important influence upon the performance of sung theatre is the work of stage director and musical director. This relationship impinges directly and indirectly on your ability to integrate singing and acting in performance. In earlier times (in opera) it was the composer or conductor who worked with the performer on psychology, emotional expression and even gesture, using an intimate knowledge of the orchestral score as a basis. With the advent of the stage director these tasks are shared to varying extents and with this has come the complication of shared responsibility and a separating out of music and drama. The partnership is not always an empathetic one. Stage directors are sometimes accused of staging a drama that has nothing to do with the composer’s work and everything to do with themselves. Conductors are accused of slavishly obeying the composer without feeling for the particular ways in which each production retells a story. Directors are sometimes described as ‘music-friendly’ or ‘not music-friendly’ and conductors as ‘drama-friendly’ or ‘not drama-friendly’. Ironically, as the training of performers develops to meet the needs of the profession by embracing training in many disciplines, the division between stage director and musical director is the most visible sign of the division between music and drama in production. Every musical decision the conductor makes has an effect on the drama and every dramatic decision the stage director makes has an effect on the music. For this reason the stage director should study the score and come to an intuitive understanding of the significance of the music and the conductor must study the words, think about the psychology of the roles and come to an intellectual understanding of the drama. If this team is able to develop a genuine co-operation based on a respect for each other’s working methods and a willingness to contribute constructively to a shared artistic vision then the totality of sung theatre will be well served. If this is so then stage director and
musical director may find a way of talking together to performers. This will free you to take your rightful place in the traffic of pleasure and ideas true collaboration in sung theatre brings.
