A phenomenographic investigation of expectations and understandings of operatic cover work by professional opera singers at Opera Australia and opera students at the University of Sydney

Abstract

Opera Australia is the national opera company of Australia. Without the possibility to access replacement singers at short notice the geographically isolated company avoids financial losses through illness-related performance cancellations by employing cover-singers for every role in an opera. Cover-singers are professional opera singers who rehearse and perform in place of an absent performer to ensure certainty of rehearsal progress and performances. This research aims to contribute knowledge about working as professional opera singers in Australia by exploring the expectations and meanings students and graduates from the Opera School at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney and professional opera singers associate with working as cover-singers at Opera Australia. Forty-three singers participated in this phenomenographic study including students and graduates, entry-career level singers, mid-career level singers, and senior-career level singers. The scope of employment experiences included principal performers, choristers with and without cover work experience, and students and graduates without cover work experience. The phenomenographic analysis of the qualitative in-depth interviews with open-ended questions reveals two central themes of ideas the participants associate with cover work. The central themes are interrelated. Work-related ideas include views about cover work as a means to enter and maintain paid artistic employment, as artistic opportunity to study and test new repertoire, to learn through observation, and the opportunity to demonstrate performance skill levels to management. The singers include technical aspects of role and performance preparation in the central theme of ideas of work. Self-related ideas about cover work describe the effects of cover work on the singers’ identity formation. Depending on the placement of the singers within the hierarchical employment order of the company the choristers and principal performers experience cover work as positive or negative influences on the formation of their singers’ identity. The students’, graduates’, and entry-career level singers’ thinking about cover work as a unidirectional path towards performance work changes in the singers at mid- and senior-career levels. They differentiate between the employment streams of cover- and performance work and react to the market forces by frequently changing between the employment streams. The singers undergo phases of redefinitions to adjust their selves to the demands of their working environment and can experience emotions associated with grief during the periods of readjustment. At tertiary level, the exposure to the work- and self-related aspects of cover work and the acquisition of cover skills would support students in their efforts to master early career opportunities as novice professionals after graduating. At industry level, the awareness of the effects of cover work on the singers’ identity formation would contribute to a positive workplace culture during the preparatory process of an opera production. The research findings suggest further investigations into cover-related careers could benefit from the application of suitable models of a methodology of mixed methods of phenomenology and life history research.