Gillebo takes as point of departure the experience of urgency when singing to someone: that something is at stake; that something is at once established, destabilized and re-constituted – a reality which the singer is both immersed in, addresses and changes through the use of voice as it sounds towards the audience in the public sphere of the performance.
Gillebo applies three concert productions as the cases of the study, and in which he also performs as a soloist: Weihnachtsoratorium by J. S. Bach, an opera recital with different arias of W. A. Mozart, G. F. Händel and R. Wagner, and Kindertotenlieder by G. Mahler. He then engages in extensive dialogue with members of the audience in post-performance interviews, attempting to approach and describe what constitutes the ethical-political potential in singing.
Analyzing and discussing these cases in light of theory of ethics, public sphere theory and semiotics, the study furnishes insights into how singing might be understood and practiced as constituting subject and meaning: in the overture by the singer towards the audience in and through the voice, the transitional dynamics between word and sound expose the humanity of the singer and manifest as ethical demand and a participation in public political discourse.