Sound and Music for the Theatre, 3rd Edition

3

Developing the Concept and Design

While I was resident sound designer for the National Shakespeare Company, I had the opportunity to work with many different directors and their interesting concepts every season. During the first meeting with the array of new directors one year, the discussion turned to our upcoming production of A Comedy of Errors. The director said he planned to do it in the style of Italian commedia dell’arte. It occurred to me that the musical counterpart of this style might be opera buffa, a very broad form of comic opera. I mentioned this to the director and the idea appealed to him immensely. I knew it could sometimes be distracting to have music with lyrics for background underscoring, or even for leading into or out ...