ABSTRACT
In discussing the embodiment of operatic singers, I have sought to explain and elaborate on the elusive and compelling quality of voice that transfixes the listener. An embodiment that is fully centred on vocal performance is an enacted and sung set of meanings carried out in real time that aids the intensification of a compelling voice. The commitment to singing the roles of Verdi and Wagner in the way I have investigated here, using the mind and body engagement outlined, results in a powerfully original creative act. My book challenges and expands current musicological tropes, which continue to locate the creative act primarily in the work of the composer rather than the performer. My model of embodiment proposes that, in addition to the music and the text, there is a third agent in performance, carrying important extra information pertinent to the other two, that of the live sound and its performer’s body.
