Prompting Voice in Opera
2011; Oxford University Press; Volume: 27; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/oq/kbs033
ISSN1476-2870
Autores Tópico(s)Theater, Performance, and Music History
ResumoIn English, he prompts; in French, the word used is souffleur, from souffle, meaning breath; in Italian, a prompter is a suggeritore, from the verb to suggest; in Hebrew, the term is derived from the word whisper, lachash: a prompter is a whisperer.1 A whisperer (like a horse whisperer) has special talents for taming and controlling animals. This has been expanded, in pop culture, to include the so-called ghost whisperer, referring to someone who can understand nonlinguistic communication incomprehensible to others. A whisperer can make an animal behave, or he can transport otherworldly messages.2 One can ask whether such a dimension exists in an operatic whisperer—whether a prompter controls the singers, has power over them, whether he mediates the performance. Does what transpires on stage call for the exceptional talent of a whisperer? Here I will touch on some of these evocative facets of the prompter but only as they bear on my topic: the prompter's vocal dimension. My article considers the nature of the operatic prompter's voice.
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