Shadow Theatre in the Training of Opera Singers? Shadow Theatre Techniques for Educational Purposes

Abstract

The article illustrates the potential of shadow theatre for training purposes by describing, from the perspective of artistic creation, a particular experience of collaboration between a Swiss music conservatory and an Italian theatre company. This is an unusual experience because it is linked to an acting course for voice students undergoing further training. In contemporary opera productions, actions and gestures are almost as important as the voices. To give the students as concrete a stage experience as possible, the use of shadow theatre, inspired by the Jungian metaphor of the unconscious and the unspoken, allows a layering of different levels of approach: vocal, emotional, stage and character building. Musically, the choice of combining different repertoires, such as baroque and contemporary, was useful to stimulate reflection on the use of the voice and to explore unexpected sounds and depths. The shadows, together with a scenography function, were the means to represent concepts and sensations such as the double, the forms of the unconscious, the labyrinths of desire and the traces of dreams. The three editions of the project, each consisting of a week of rehearsals and a public performance, took place in 2015, 2016 and 2019.