Singing Against the Grain: A Critique of Homogeneity in Vocal Aesthetics

PAULA REDWAY is currently in the second year of a part-time Ph.D. degree program in the Music Department at the University of Durham (UK) under the supervision of Max Paddison. The area she is exploring utilizes critical theories in order to investigate the historical and cultural development of vocal techniques. It is an extension of the work she undertook for her M.A. dissertation (Manchester, UK, supervised by Antony Easthope) entitled, “The Impossibility of Musical Immediacy”. Since February 1997, Paula has also been a member of staff at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, currently in the position of Course Administrator for the School of Vocal and Opera Studies. During the last year, Paula has undertaken the role of Mercédès in an excerpt from Carmen for North West Opera (Manchester) and has performed as a mezzo-soprano chorus member in performances of Eugene Onegin (Wilmslow Opera) and Hippolytus and Aricia (Yorke Trust, Norfolk). Recent chorus participation also includes performances of numerous opera excerpts, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s St. Nicholas Mass, and Handel’s Messiah. Future plans involve the role of Athamus in Handel’s Semele for North West Opera and chorus participation in a production of La Traviata for Mid Wales Opera (Powys).