This paper examines some of the sensory acting techniques that can be useful in enhancing classical vocal performance. Singing is not only about producing a pleasing, accurate tone, staying in tempo, phrasing lyrics to produce a beautiful sound, and other technical issues. It is also about stimulating an emotional reaction within the audience in the same way that acting affects those watching. One such set of techniques is the approach espoused by Uta Hagen in her book, Respect for Acting, which includes sense memory, emotional memory, and other acting techniques useful for singers.
Fine singers seldom analyze the things they do in performance. Instead, . . . the imagination is freed for artistic expression by motor actions that are consistently repeatable. This constitutes the psychological and physical control of performance (3).
In other words, once a singer achieves technical mastery, he or she can begin to focus on what is being sung and why. Once a singer learns how to sing, he or she can then begin to learn how to act through the music.
Hagen argues that acting begins with talent. She defines talent as ôan amalgam of high sensitivity; easy vulnerability; high sensory equipment (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting - intensely); a vivid imagination as well as a grip on reality; the desire to communicate oneÆs own experience and sensations, to make oneÆs point heard and seenö (13). All these qualities, if initially present in some form, can be developed through exercises and concentration. Of the ten areas that HagenÆs book focuses on, two are especially useful for the singer: sense memory and emotional memory.
Hagen writes, ôSense memory, the recall of physical sensations, is often easier for the actor than the recall of his emotionsö (52). Because music often recreates aspects of the physical world, sense memory can be helpful to the singer by allowing him or her to summon up an appropr...