My New Book
Acting in Opera: A Contemporary Guide for the Inquisitive Young Artist
By Nicholas Muni
This series of three short manuals is for the emerging young artist who is eager for techniques that he/she can easily put to effective use and curious about concepts that lie beyond the obvious or explicit which can help make him or her a truly “interesting” artist.
Act One: Concepts is about the “physics” of theater-making, laws and principles which, like gravity, operate under the radar but which have a consistent and massive effect on everything that occurs in performance.
Act Two: Craft focuses on acting technique.
Act Three: Career addresses the artistry and professionalism required to create a career in opera.
This series is atypical of existing books on acting in opera in that it does not espouse a singular “technique”. There are many exercises included, to be sure, but for the most part it lays out concepts and ideas on a broad range of facets for opera and art-making, which I hope the inquisitive young artist will find helpful in knitting together their own technique as a singer-actor.
Its purposes are to fill in information gaps, re-wire existing knowledge and provide a broader context for technique and artistry.
For the beginner, this series can serve as a primer; for the intermediate artist it can function as practical manuals; for advanced singers it can, hopefully, be an informative and enjoyable read; for teachers and stage directors, I believe this series can serve as both a prism for the subject and a resource for the classroom, workshop or rehearsal.
As with effective theater, I strive for brevity, essence and access. It is intentionally written in short chapters, with illustrations as appropriate.
Let the houselights dim…