Skip to content
1981
image of Mouthing into the void: Can the prompter sing?

Abstract

At once required to be clearly perceptible to the performer(s) and undetectable to the audience, the opera prompter’s voice occupies a liminal space – between public and private, voiced and unvoiced, present and absent. This text investigates how such a paradoxical position may assist in (re)constructing a trans* voice similarly marked by tensions around audibility, legibility and control. Written from the perspective of a transgender man and opera prompter, the text examines how the act of prompting – voicing discreetly, incorrectly and excessively – can offer a framework for rehearsing trans* embodiment and desire. Grounded in performance theory, queer phenomenology and the author’s own practice, the article traces how eroticism, failure and sonic leakage emerge as sites of resistance to normative vocal expectations. The prompter’s task of mouthing into the void becomes a metaphor for trans* vocal practice: collaborative, excessive, partial and always in transition. Rather than offering mastery or coherence, the prompter’s voice – like the trans* voice – is committed to ambiguity, misrecognition and affective intensity. This text proposes that by embracing the instability of voice, one might locate new forms of presence, intimacy and shared vulnerability. The prompter sings – not to be heard, but to be felt, misheard, needed and missed.

© 2026 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jivs_00114_1
2026-02-13
2026-04-22

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Chion, Michel (1994), Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen (ed. and trans. W. Murch and C. Gorbman), New York: Columbia University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Císař, Jan (2019), ‘Gregar, Alexandr: S Janem Císařem nejen o loutkovém divadle’, Loutkář, vol. 4, 1 October, pp. 7–10, https://www.loutkar.eu/index.php?h=&id=2019101. Accessed 1 July 2025.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Connor, Steven (2001), ‘Violence, ventriloquism and the vocalic body’, in P. Campbell and A. Kear (eds), Psychoanalysis and Performance, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 75–93.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Děžinský, Milan (2017), Obcházení ostrova, Brno: Host.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Dolar, Mladen (2006), A Voice and Nothing More, Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Dubská, Alice (2004), Dvě století českého loutkářství: vývojové proměny českého loutkového divadla od poloviny 18: století do roku 1945, Prague: Akademie múzických umění.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Farkašová, Etela (2024), O písaní/ nepísaní, Bratislava: Slovenské literárne centrum.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Faust, Chantal (2017), ‘The masochistic pulse’, in B. O’Callaghan and S. Perks (eds), Dark Habits, Manchester: HOME Publications, pp. 59–67.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. George, Doran (2013), ‘Forget provocation let’s have sex’, Dance Theatre Journal, 25:2, n.pag., https://tessawills.com/forget-provocation-lets-have-sex/. Accessed 1 July 2025.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. George, Doran (2017), ‘Can we have sex? Michael Turinsky’s dancing against compulsory ableism’, X-TRA, 19:4, n.pag., https://www.x-traonline.org/article/can-we-have-sex-michael-turinskys-dancing-against-compulsory-ableism/. Accessed 1 July 2025.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Grover-Friedlander, Michal (2011), ‘Prompting voice in opera’, The Opera Quarterly, 27:4, pp. 460–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbs033.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Holmes, Rachel (2015), ‘My tongue on your theory: The bittersweet reminder of every-thing unnameable’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37:5, pp. 662–79, https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2015.1075704.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Jurkowski, Henryk (2004), Metamorfózy bábkového divadla v 20. storočí, Bratislava: Divadelný ústav.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Kramár, Richie Lux (2025), ‘I love listening to music and imagining things happening’, VIS – Nordic Journal for Artistic Research, 14, n.pag., https://doi.org/10.22501/vis.3241639.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Kramár, Richard L. and Peklo, Kino (2022), Borderline, Jihlava: Adolescent.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Kunst, Bojana (2008), ‘Restaging the monstrous’, in M. Bleeker (ed.), Anatomy Live: Performance and the Operating Theatre, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 211–22.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Macl, Ondřej (2014), ‘Patos křídla a šípu: Variace Eróta v dějinách evropské literatury’, MA dissertation, Prague: Univerzita Karlova v Praze.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Makonj, Karel (2009), ‘Loutka differancovaná’, Loutkář, vol. 6, 20 December, n.pag., http://www.loutkar.eu/index.php?id=113. Accessed 1 July 2025.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Navarová, Zuzana (2005), ‘Černá kára’, Nebe počká, CD, Czechia: Monitor (label).
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Novak, Jelena (2011), ‘Throwing the voice, catching the body: Opera and ventriloquism in Philip Glass/Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête’, Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, 5:2, pp. 137–56, https://doi.org/10.3828/msmi.2011.7.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Pavlovský, Petr (2004), Základní pojmy divadla: teatrologický slovník, Prague: Libri & Národní divadlo.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Peraino, Judith Ann (2003), ‘Listening to the sirens: Music as queer ethical practice’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 9:4, pp. 433–70, https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-9-4-433.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Preciado, Paul B. (2021), Can the Monster Speak?, Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Venturi, Francesco (2021), ‘Creaky voice gender’, Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, 6:2, pp. 201–18, https://doi.org/10.1386/jivs_00047_1.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jivs_00114_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keywords: masochistic contract ; vocal misrecognition ; prompting ; affective embodiment ; trans* voice ; queer listening

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test