OPTH 204 - Opera Aria Coaching

HC CNDP

2 credits
In collaboration with studio voice faculty, this course will guide the student singers to find their suitable operatic repertoire and to approach arias with solid learning techniques and practice strategies. In this course, as the singer will learn to engage in in-depth research and analysis of both musical and literary sources, they will be able to explore and express the original dramatic intentions of the creators. Unlike instrumentalists, singers make music almost exclusively in a collaborative capacity and, at the college level, must learn to collaborate on an instrument (a voice) that is still unfinished, growing and changing. Focusing on the practices of singer-pianist collaborations on opera arias, this unique course endeavors to identify and explore the specific skills required of the pianists who have specific interests in piano-vocal collaborative repertoire in the successful rehearsal and performance of the operatic repertoires. As a piano-vocal pair, the students will learn collaborative skills of balance, ensemble, and shared musical leadership, along with rehearsal techniques. May be repeated for credit.