ABSTRACT
What research is discovering about memory and imagination, and how emotion, reason, and physicality are inseparable in the functioning of our brains, can have significant implications for our understanding of performance, especially live performance, and the purpose of embodiment. The nature of embodiment is in and of the body, and connects cognition, emotion, and the quality of the vocal sound itself. Operatic singing in particular is a detailed engagement of mind and body, and the singer experiences this as enacted meaning in real time, resulting in embodiment as a creative act, and incorporating any musicological aspects needed that are pertinent to the role.
