Martyna Kosecka: Mini-opera: acquiring knowledge and amplifying change through the creation of short opera concepts

Field of study: Artistic Research

The project focuses on the development of a series of short opera concepts that Kosecka will compose and stage herself. The compositions will address various structural content and attempt to transcribe the full operatic form into an equally developed condensed version.

Most importantly, it is also an investigation into how Kosecka approaches the mini-opera, what this form means to her, and how she intends to use it in her further compositional development. Through the social critique addressed in the short opera concepts of her artistic research and their transdisciplinary interweaving, Kosecka wants to discuss certain universal experiences and concerns related to a theme close to her heart - the role and treatment of women in contemporary society. Her artistic research seeks to find answers to these questions:

01. The mini-opera and its time frames. How does the shortening of the dramaturgical plot affect the form's content, and in what areas does it redirect the perception of the short opera as musical drama?

02. Opera character and video-opera character. How does this interaction expand perceptual strategies and make the performance on stage multi-dimensional?

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

04. Contemporary Opera - Contemporary Theatre - Contemporary Performance - what elements of each define their existence in my mini-operas, how, in what ways and to what extent? What then is a mini-opera?

Mini-operas will be representations of a short form with the qualities of a large form, and are brought to life through a transdisciplinary approach by binding music, instrumental theatre, experimental theatre and the world of opera with anthropological perspectives, sociology, video, new media and, above all, reflections on the situation of women's rights.

Kosecka works eight to ten mini-opera concepts and organise them into three media categories. The final presentation of her artistic project in Oslo will be a performance installation of the collective of mini-operas, hopefully, accompanied by a panel discussion devoted to the XXI century opera, mini-opera and gender issues.