A Study of Aphasia

Czech Television recorded the unique music-theatre piece for mezzosoprano, violoncello, female vocal quartet, live electronics and one actress.

A composition by Michal Rataj that mixes music and sounds with texts by Katharina Schmitt, focusing on the spatial and performative aspects of contemporary music theatre. A Study of Aphasia is a music-theatre piece for mezzosoprano, violoncello, female vocal quartet, live electronics and one actress. It is inspired by the book Children’s Speech and Aphasia (1918) by Austrian linguist (and founder of the discipline of logopedics) Emil Fröschel. In his book, Fröschel describes the relationship between the development of language skills in the child, speech impediments and psychology, giving particular attention to the research into speech loss, or aphasia. The dramaturgical frame of A Study of Aphasia is based on the confrontation between a mute/non-speaking character and a speaking character, resulting in a broad palette of different vocal expressions such as singing, sprechgesang, whispering, speaking and screaming.

The Ostrava studio of Czech Television recorded the unique performance of this work at the New Opera Days Ostrava (NODO) 2020, an international festival of contemporary opera.

Performers: Katalin Károlyi, Ivana Uhlířová, Andrej Gál, Michal Rataj, Tiburtina Ensemble; TV Director: Petra Všelichová.

Czech Television
Production year 2020
English title A Study of Aphasia
Production Company Czech Television
TV Director Petra Všelichová
Czech Television