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Ian Sidden

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Premiere: La muette de Portici

March 13, 2020 By Ian Sidden Leave a Comment

Tonight at Theater Dortmund, we’re having our premiere of Auber’s La muette de Portici. However, it will be a closed performance due to restrictions on public gatherings on account of COVID-19. The first open performance will take place in early May.

In addition to singing in the chorus, I’m singing a small role as a fisher who comes to warn his compatriots of impending doom.

Toi toi toi to all of my colleagues, and I wish everyone good health as the world confronts this great challenge.

Read More:

https://www.theaterdo.de/detail/event/20694/

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: auber, covid-19, Premiere

The Stress Feedback Loop

January 23, 2020 By Ian Sidden Leave a Comment

Do you experience emotions without some corresponding physical manifestation? I doubt it. Anger, fear, sadness, stress all tend to crop up physically as well as mentally: you get that hit of adrenaline, your muscles tighten up, and you’re on the emotional ride.

You might not even remember why you feel stressed! I’ve had to sometimes think through my day to remember why I feel stressed when I had such lingering stress artifacts. Once found, the logical question is whether carrying that stress forward is warranted. Usually it isn’t.

But what if this residual stress echo is brought with us over days, months, or years?

Anything can turn into a habit if we practice it enough, and that goes for those physical reactions as well. If we were to break down our physical habits and catalogue all unnecessary muscle use, we would find that some, if not most, of it is practiced stress carried into non-stressful situations.

If you’re singing with this residual stress, you will sound stressed because your muscles are acting stressed. You will behave stressed. You may feel stressed mentally because your body is acting stressed. And by feeling stressed mentally, we reinforce the physical stress.

It’s a stress feedback loop.

The first two places to look for this feedback loop are:

  • Your solar plexus (the point in your abdominals between the floating ribs). This will manifest through abdominal tightness and a torso collapsed in and around the solar plexus.
  • The atlanto-occipital joint (the point where your head meets your neck). This will be tight, and you’ll be trying to shorten your neck by pulling your head down and back.

Take a moment right now and divert some attention to one of these points and then the other. Breathe into them and soften them. By releasing them, they will expand on their own. Let them. It’s a subtle feeling, but I’ve found that it feels good.

Ideally, it needs to be practiced away from stressful situations because it’s hard to form new habits deliberately when we’re under stress. That’s where a practice like meditation comes in: it reintroduces us to ourselves in the most mundane circumstances (breathing, walking, sitting) and lets us re-habituate how we think and use our bodies.

It’s easier to see how stress changes us when our default is calm. But if we’re chronically stressed, the change isn’t as perceptible.

Nevertheless, next time you’re in a stressful situation, try and divert some awareness to these two points. Are you pulling your head down and back? Are you tightening your solar plexus and pulling yourself down and inward? If yes, then try and let go of that, and in so doing you may free yourself from much of the stress that the situation would otherwise provoke.

Try to break the loop.

PS. These are not exclusively my original ideas. The idea of physical stress leading to mental stress as a feedback loop was taught to me by my teacher Andrew Zimmerman who learned from his practice and study of Alexander Technique.

Filed Under: Craft Tagged With: alexander technique, Andrew Zimmerman, Stress

“Im weißen Rössl” Morning After

January 19, 2020 By Ian Sidden Leave a Comment

Last night, we had the premiere of “Im weißen Rössl” at Theater Dortmund.

About to start the premiere of “Im weißen Rössl” at @theaterdortmund ! pic.twitter.com/p7vL1w73lz

— Ian Sidden (@IanSidden) January 18, 2020

I don’t think I’ve ever heard our audience laugh as hard or as consistently as they did last night. The creative combination of the cast and Regie team has really made magic here.

For my part, I enjoy singing the tunes, and I’m always happy to have a chance to do any kind of stage dancing. Naturally, the chorus isn’t tasked with carrying the bulk of the dancing duty, but I’m happy how well integrated we were into the big numbers. It’s always thrilling to hit that final pose and hear the audience erupt. That will never get old.

Filed Under: My News Tagged With: Premiere

Solving Problems

January 18, 2020 By Ian Sidden

One lens to view your task as a performer is as a problem solver.

The director gives you a weird direction, and you don’t know what to do with it. She’s clearly wrong, right? She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, right? My interpretation is the best, right?

Wrong. Getting stuck on those thoughts will sabotage your creative process. You have a problem, so solve it: what would it look like if you followed her direction? Figure it out. Find the pathway to make it work.

The same is true if there’s something weird in the script or if there’s some weird harmony. Clearly, the composer or librettist just made a dumb choice here. Clearly, they were pressed for time and forgot they left this in here. Clearly, no one will notice if I just say or sing this without much intention behind it.

Wrong. Solve the problem. Assume it’s intentional. Why are you singing that? What kind of creative discoveries can you make if you accept the anomalies existent as valid?

If you need to gin up your courage, remember that everyone involved in the production is also trying to solve problems, and they need your help. The director is also wrestling with weird stuff in the script. Your other actors are trying to solve the problem of some of your interpretive choices. The conductor is trying to solve the weird tempo marking, harmonies and dynamic shifts.

Solve the problem.

Filed Under: Craft Tagged With: composers, directors, performance analysis, performing, problems

Premiere: Madama Butterfly

September 15, 2019 By Ian Sidden

Tonight is our premiere of Madama Butterfly in Opernhaus Dortmund. I’m playing Cio-Cio-San’s Uncle Yakusidé, and I’m very excited to be a part of this production.

Heute Abend findet unsere Premiere Madama Butterfly im Opernhaus Dortmund statt. Ich spiele den Onkel Yakusidé, und ich freue mich sehr auf die Vorstellung.

More Information/Mehr Details:

https://mobile.theaterdo.de/detail/event/20593/

Filed Under: My News Tagged With: madama butterfly, Premiere

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About Ian

Ian Sidden is currently a baritone member of the Theater Dortmund Opera chorus. Read More…

Latest Posts

Premiere: La muette de Portici

Tonight at Theater Dortmund, we’re having our premiere of Auber’s La muette de Portici. However, it will be a closed performance.

The Stress Feedback Loop

Anything can turn into a habit if we practice it enough, and we walk around with habitual physical stress making us feel and sound stressed.

“Im weißen Rössl” Morning After

Last night, we had the premiere of “Im weißen Rössl” at Theater Dortmund. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our audience laugh as hard or as consistently as they did last night. The creative combination of the cast and Regie team has really made magic here. For my part, I enjoy singing the tunes, and […]

Solving Problems

One lens to view your task as a performer is as a problem solver.

Premiere: Madama Butterfly

Tonight is our premiere of Madama Butterfly in Opernhaus Dortmund. I’m playing Cio-Cio-San’s Uncle Yakusidé, and I’m very excited to be a part of this production.

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