Alexa Wright

Opera Interna explores the performance of emotion and examines the point at which the bodily experience of self meets and intersects with the performed identity of a character. The large scale, very high definition digitally manipulated images question notions of the real in different ways. Their physical presence is designed to have an emotional impact in itself, whilst their theatricality offers the viewer a critical distance from the subjects. The ‘larger than life’ scale of the images allows the audience to question the degree to which the emotion performed by each singer is ‘genuine’. The slippage in the artifice of wig, make up etc. during performance becomes a crucial part of the expression of character. The vulnerability suggested by these ‘mistakes’ raises questions about the extent to which people unconsciously communicate emotional or mental states in addition to those they are conscious of performing. 

This project was made possible by a residency at Welsh National Opera. Supported by a Small Grant in the Creative and Performing Arts from the Arts & Humanities Research Board.