Chapter 1
1.1 Introduction
This doctoral research seeks to make use of the subjects of scientific research in the creation of new operatic works, in particular through the use of anthropomorphism with reference to the creation of libretti and performance. The scientific concepts and fields of research which inspired each case study manifest themselves in the various media that opera allows us to play with, through the characters and narrative, the music that leads these characters through their journey and the scenic elements such as venue, lighting, costume and props. The subject can also be treated as a collaborator alongside the creative participants (composer, designer, choreographer) and performers. As such the PhD has required an interdisciplinary approach to each work, grounded in creative experimentation leading to live performance.
During this PhD when referring to ‘science’ I mean both the broader categories of the subject and the individual objects that are studied in the pursuit of knowledge via the scientific method of experimentation, observation and quantitative analysis. This involved looking to current trends in scientific research, searching out new findings through reading recent journal papers and discussing subjects with the scientific researchers in that field.
I am situated within this practice-based research as both librettist and performer. Starting from the science itself, and the scientists' experience, I construct narratives, characterisations and relationships that combine scientific ideas with typical human behaviours (e.g., love, anger, regret). Through an anthropomorphic transposition of the material, I aim to bring the audience closer to the subject. The production of the libretto acts as one of the central features of the research and is informed by experimentation with multimedia digital artefacts, performance, and research into the fields of science, psychology and opera. This is then extended into the production of the full theatrical work. All work is produced in cycles (a method described later in Methodology), undergoing several stages. This is an ongoing process, meaning that the works presented will evolve still further through scrutiny and collaborative work.
My background means I am ideally positioned to carry out this research: I hold an undergraduate degree in Physics and Philosophy, a Masters in Environmental Technology and subsequently worked as a physics teacher, meaning that I have been trained in scientific thought and am experienced in the public’s response to the way science is often presented. I am also a performer, with a Masters in Vocal Performance, and have worked as a performer and creator of new works, meaning that I am able to approach the creation of libretti from the perspective of a performer and producer as well as that of scientist and science disseminator. I am also co-founder of the opera company, Infinite Opera, along with composer Daniel Blanco Albert. Our approach to creating new work is always to embed the chosen subject in multiple ways within the construction of the libretto and music, whether that be through anthropomorphising, or as a way to generate narrative and character structures, or using data, concept or historical setting to inform the music. Our first piece Entanglement! An Entropic Tale (2018) told the story of an electron and a positron who fight against entropy to find a way to be together on a journey through the universe. This work uses the relationships and theories in physics to guide and dictate the relationships and fates of the characters on stage.
The present research comprises the production and performance of two new operas, used as case studies within the thesis. These are The Flowering Desert – an opera about the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system – and Lipote: An interconnected journey: an opera about the root networks of trees in rainforests and plantations. The libretti and a filmed performance for each work are available in each chapter in sections 2.5 and 3.5. This is supported by a commentary which explores the characterisations and creative process involved. Each work encompasses both creative and production phases, to fully explore the process of ‘librettising’: performing and carrying a subject to an audience through the medium of opera. In particular, the works seek to explore the following areas: how science can be embedded in operatic characters, form and performance and the role of collaboration in achieving this outcome. The aim of the research was to investigate the above through the creation of new interdisciplinary work leading to performance, the writing of libretti which embed and anthropomorphise scientific thought and the exploration of vocal and performance techniques to help develop a broader range of expression for embodying these abstract concepts. Even though the audience and their feedback are used as tools towards understanding the work during its developmental stages, an analysis and understanding of their response to the work is not a key aim. This research does not explore the use of opera as a pedagogical tool to teach an audience about a subject. Whilst it enables a different approach to science, using characters and stories which will strike a chord in order to generate a more empathetic experience of these topics is employed, this is not the focus of the research.
My approach has developed in the context of considering the more-than-human, specifically in reference to David Abram’s text The Spell of the Sensuous (1996). This explores the way in which the non-human is manifested in our consciousness, and how we relate to the non-human in a contemporary and urbanised society. To Abram the concept of a story transmitted orally is key to the embodiment of knowledge about the more-than-human and the connection to the natural world. He says:
Stories, like rhymed poems or songs, readily incorporate themselves into our felt experience; the shifts of action echo and resonate our own encounters—in hearing or telling the story we vicariously live it, and the travails of its characters embed themselves into our own flesh. The sensuous, breathing body is, as we have seen, a dynamic, ever-unfolding form, more a process than a fixed or unchanging object. As such, it cannot readily appropriate inert “facts” or “data” (static nuggets of “information” abstracted from the lived situations in which they arise). Yet the living body can easily assimilate other dynamic or eventful processes, like the unfolding of a story, appropriating each episode or event as a variation of its own unfolding. (Abram, 1996: 76)
Writers such as McGilchrist (2021) have argued that the scientific and rationalist enlightenment paradigm to objectify and dissect the natural world, separating the scientist from the studied object (Magnat, 2020:125) and sanitising the experimental context to a point which no longer represents the real world, now has the potential to work against our development. The onset of pandemics, destruction of land, loss of biodiversity, growing economic inequalities both globally and at home may all be symptoms of an objectified and abstracted view of ourselves in our world. This research project explores through practice the use of theatre, and particularly opera and music theatre, to bring us closer to these objectified and abstracted worlds, giving them an emotional relevance and allowing an audience to see themselves fully reflected in the concepts and ideas we study (and not just see them as an external object, whose presence is proved through an empirical assessment). The more I have looked at science this way, the more I have found that even though our main focus in the development of knowledge has been to reframe the way we see the world through the scientific lens, the embodiment of knowledge may still be experiential and empathetic.