Beautiful Singing: Asides for Bel Canto
Curated by Irene Hoffman
SITE, Santa Fe, 2019-2020
New works commissioned by Irene Hoffman to respond to the 2019 exhibition Bel Canto
“SITE Santa Fe is pleased to present Beautiful Singing, Asides by Andy DuCett, an intervention by self-described opera amateur and Minneapolis-based artist Andy DuCett.
DuCett‘s Beautiful Singing foregrounds the inherent athleticism of opera singing and draw parallels to the endurance, strength, and fandom of sports in this unexpected entrée into the world of opera. Playing with themes and elements from Bel Canto, DuCett creates a series of works and interventions that utilize performance, interactive installations, and humor.
Playing with themes and elements from Bel Canto, DuCett has created a series of works and interventions that utilize performance, interactive installations, and humor to frame the experience of opera from a new perspective. DuCett’s Beautiful Singing merges opera and the everyday, with unexpected mash-ups of popular culture tropes. In SITE’s lobby, a pop-up souvenir stand appears. Here, DuCett foregrounds the inherent athleticism of opera singing and draws parallels to the endurance, strength, and fandom of sports in this unexpected entrée into the world of opera. Elsewhere within Bel Canto one encounters an interactive opera performance in the form of a hand-made coin operated entertainment machine, in the spirit of vintage carnival side-shows, complete with animated lamps as protagonists.
-Irene Hoffman, Director and Chief Curator, SITE Santa Fe
Singing Down the Sun
A set of bleaches was placed in the parking lot of the Santa Fe Opera House facing due West. When the sun approached the visual horizon, guests took their seats on the bleachers and two Sopranos sustained a collaborative high C until the sun passed from view. Snacks were also served.
Singers: Hannah Stephens & Jennifer Perez
Video: Andy Primm
Merch.
Opera has no merchandise game, so custom pennants, can coozies, t-shirts and foam fingers were created for the tailgate and performance of Singing Down the Sun, and displayed in the lobby of SITE.
Operatic Services
Flyers were hung on community bulletin boards advertising the services of Operatic Services, which was to have their grocery lists sung instead of say, texted. Collaborating with classically trained singer Tara Khozein, participants were able to have their mundane grocery needs elevated artfully by a one of a kind composition that was delivered by .mp3 to the recipient.
To hear these compositions, please visit Operatic Services on Spotify. (Special thanks to Than Tibbets)
Ricevete O padroncina
Visitors to Bel Canto were given a token at the front desk of SITE. When reaching a room with an inactivated stage and coin slot machine, they put on a pair of headphones and had a concert for one. The lights on the stage were synchronized with Mozart’s piece from The Marriage of Figaro: Ricevete O padroncina. At the conclusion, participants were invited to throw a rose on stage to signal their approval.
Special thanks to Thomas Vause for his programming genius.
Prepatory drawings were used as a sticker sheet to add to the existing exhibition catalog.
