The phantoms of the opera—Stress offstage and stress onstage

Autor: Negin Motamed Yeganeh, Olga Sviatchenko, Taylor McKee, Thea Leavitt, Christina Guthier, Anja-Xiaoxing Cui, Lara A. Boyd, Nancy Hermiston
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Psychology of Music. 50:797-813
ISSN: 1741-3087
0305-7356
DOI: 10.1177/03057356211013504
Popis: During opera performance singers deliver vocally demanding roles, follow a conductor, portray emotions of a musical work, act, dance, and engage with costumes, sets and props before an audience. Hence, opera performance is a stressful experience. This study examined different types of stress experiences by measuring the trajectories of 10 opera trainees’ heart rate variability (HRV) during two performances, covering onstage and offstage periods. We explored connections between HRV, self-reported stress measures, and expert-rated difficulty of the performed roles. We discovered that opera trainees had lower HRV and thus experienced greater physiological stress, while onstage compared to offstage periods. In contrast, when asked about performance specific stress, opera trainees self-reported that they felt more nervous when they were offstage. This disconnect between physiological measurement and psychological self-assessment suggests that there are two relevant types of stress for opera performance: psychological stress, which is felt more keenly offstage, and physiological stress, which is greater onstage. Patterns of association between HRV and self-reported measures suggest that HRV is linked to general (not performance-specific) stress. Patterns between self-reported measures suggest that music performance anxiety relates to trait anxiety. Our results indicate specific targets for possible interventions for stress management in opera singers.
Databáze: OpenAIRE