Abstracts
Abstract
For Cirque du Soleil’s touring arena show Corteo, music is a central feature of every performance. In this article, I focus on Corteo’s touring sound technicians, who play an essential role in the show’s musical presentation. I discuss a methodological approach to my ethnographic research, which provides new insights into large-scale intermedia performance environments like Corteo. I theorize a masculine-gendered, stoic mode of emotional labour that is enacted through voice-to-voice remote communication during performance. Through participant observation, public intercept interviews, and what I call “working interviews”—interviews with the sound technicians that take place during performances or other operational activities—I engage directly with the technical and emotional labour practices of musical production.
Keywords:
- Cirque du Soleil,
- emotional labour,
- sound technician,
- ethnomusicology,
- working interview
Résumé
Pour le spectacle itinérant du Cirque du Soleil, Corteo, la musique est au coeur de chaque représentation. Dans cet article, je me concentre sur les techniciens du son de tournée de Corteo, qui jouent un rôle essentiel dans la présentation musicale du spectacle. Je discute d’une approche méthodologique de ma recherche ethnographique, qui fournit de nouvelles perspectives sur les environnements de performance intermédia à grande échelle comme Corteo. Je théorise un mode masculin et stoïque de travail émotionnel qui est mis en oeuvre par une communication à distance voix à voix pendant la représentation. Grâce à l’observation participante, aux entretiens publics interceptés et à ce que j’appelle des « entretiens de travail » —des entretiens avec les techniciens du son qui ont lieu pendant les performances ou d’autres activités opérationnelles—je m’engage directement dans les pratiques de travail techniques et émotionnelles de la production musicale.
Mots-clés :
- Cirque du Soleil,
- charge mentale,
- technicien de son,
- ethnomusicologie,
- entrevue de travail
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Appendices
Biographical note
Jacob Danson Faraday is a performer, sound designer, and touring sound technician. As a scholar, he examines the creative influence of live sound technicians and the working communities of large-scale touring productions. He is a recent graduate of the ethnomusicology PhD program at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
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