Martyna Kosecka: Mini-opera: on the dramaturgy of protest

Field of study: Artistic Research

The project “Mini-opera: on the dramaturgy of protest” focuses on the development of a series of short opera concepts that Martyna Kosecka composes and stages during the development period at the Norwegian Academy of Music. The compositions serve as an exploration of what a mini-opera
can be and where it is positioned on the axis of a broadly understood performative art practise. The mini-operas are brought to life through a transdisciplinary approach, combining music, instrumental and experimental theatre, mixed media and the world of opera with
anthropological perspectives, sociology, and, above all, reflections on the situation of women's rights.

Through the social criticism addressed in the short opera concepts of her artistic research and their transdisciplinary interweaving, Kosecka discusses the role and treatment of women in contemporary society. Her research uses the figure of the woman as a starting point for understanding the general development of opera to date, its current institutional challenges, the thematic characterological canons of representation and the further exploration of the chosen challenges of women’s rights and the fight against oppression and discrimination.

The project therefore seeks answers to these research questions:

01. The mini-opera and its time frames. How does the shortening of the dramaturgical plot affect the form's content and message and how do the different performance practises influence its final shape? What then is a mini-opera?

02. What is the role and definition of women in the context of the mini-opera research?

03. The composer - social activist or sensitive artist? Why manifesting through art?

The final presentation of Kosecka's artistic project in Norway will be a performance-installation of the collective of mini-operas created during herresearch period, accompanied by a panel discussion devoted to the XXI century opera, mini-opera and gender issues.