Geplaatst op 09 Dec 2010
Barokfluitist Jed Wentz volgde twee jaar lang danslessen om het juiste gevoel bij de bewegingen aan te leren die nodig waren bij de tragédie en musique, een barok Frans operagenre. Op 9 december 2010 verdedigde hij zijn doctoraatsthesis The relationship between gesture and rhythmic freedom in the performance of French opera, 1673-1779 aan de Universiteit van Leiden.
Wentz’s theoretical and practical research culminated in eight performances which he recorded on video. He chose four monologues from three tragédies en musique and of these he recorded both a sung and a spoken (by himself) version. He reached the conclusion that gestures might very well have influenced rhythm; in his reconstructions this was certainly the case. Wentz showed this by performing the music both with and without gesticulating singers. The difference was obvious.
Another conclusion is that gestures also strengthen the emotions that the music arouses in the audience. In other words: the road the Baroque opera of those days took to the hearts of its audience may have been different from the naturalistic approach preferred nowadays, but both have an emotional impact on the audience.
