Deadline: March 28, 2022
1. “At Work and at Play: Opera, Musical Performance, and Reflections on (Creative) Labor”
(this is the Opera and Musical Performance Forum’s guaranteed session)
This panel engages with the relationship between work and art, labor and creativity. How do labor conditions influence the production, economics, and industry of opera and musical performance? How do pandemics impact this labor?
Deadline for submissions: Monday, 28 March 2022
Naomi E. Morgenstern, U of Toronto (naomi.morgenstern@utoronto.ca )
2. “The Job of a Parent in Opera and Musical Performance”
Children are essential characters in many operas and other musical works. How do relationships between parents and children evolve on stage? What do these representations say about the societal factors that impact families? See extended CfP below.
Deadline for submissions: Monday, 28 March 2022
John Pendergast, West Point US Military Academy (john.pendergast@westpoint.edu )
Extended CfP: Many musical works feature children as characters. More often than not, they appear as unwitting victims of the whims and passions of their parents. Examples from opera include Amahl and the Night Visitors, Suor Angelica, Madama Butterfly, Boris Godunov, not to mention Medea or Norma. Sometimes the children do not appear on stage or appear only fleetingly, and yet their place in the plot is integral to their parents’ drama. What do these works tell us about how well their parents are meeting their obligations as parents? What role do societal factors play in helping or hurting the children? Finally, how have the answers to these questions changed since the works first appeared? Submissions need not be limited to opera, and may be related to a broad range of musical works.