My research area lies between various fields of study, especially voice and performance related opera studies, music analysis, theatre studies, and physiology of voice production. The key concepts of this study include voice, dramaturgy, narrativity, continuity, causality. I intend to explore the interplay between these concepts and those inherited from the field of music analysis. The key concepts are related to the dramaturgical structures of a performance and to the ways in which the performance constructs itself, the time and the narrative.

The material of the research is the above mentioned works of contemporary music theatre. The research focuses on the work and its performance, and is based on the assumption that voice plays an important role in structuring the work. Research on vocal dramaturgy includes an analysis of the relationship between text and voice as well as an analysis of the vocal performance per se and in relation to other sound elements of the performance. A central topic concerning my research material will also be raised: when discussing the dramaturgy of a contemporary staged piece, is it the work or the performance that is being analysed, and how do the results of choosing either differ from each other?

In the four articles I will approach the material from different angles: the perspective of vocal expression, the perspective of the performance, the perspective of the interplay between the text and the vocal, and the perspective of the co-existing dramaturgies.