Baroque Gesture is a form of Historical Acting which was used in opera, theatre and oratory throughout the Baroque period and into the Classical period. In 17th-century France, gesticulation was not confined to singers and actors; lawyers, diplomats and priests were also trained in the craft!

The advent of surtitles in the 20th century allowed the phenomenon of ‘Regietheater’ to develop. With audiences able to follow the plot of an opera by reading a translation of the libretto in real time, stage directors are now free to take more conceptual liberties, often creating symbolic interpretations of the score for their productions. In Handel’s London, audiences were usually watching operas that were new to them, often sung in Italian. There was typically no stage director as we would understand the role today; rather, with input from the librettist and composer, the singers were trained to essentially self-direct, drawing on their vast repertoire of gestures to tell the story. Audiences were familiar with these gestures and through them could understand complex plots without the support of surtitles that we have today.

The rules of Baroque Gesture are rooted in court etiquette, born of the strict class system of the Baroque period. Singers use their entire body – the face, eyes, hands, fingers, legs and feet – to convey meaning and emotion. There are several rules to the system which, once mastered, allow the singer to embody their character and have fun creating their persona. There are even more specific guidelines on how characters of different temperaments should approach their movement and gestures in order for the character types to be immediately obvious to audiences. Gestures must be born from emotional truth and appear as fluid as possible, unless the emotion of the situation or text calls for an abrupt gesture (which should be used sparingly for maximum effect).

The singer should stand in ‘contrapposto’, with weight distributed unevenly, either leaning on the front foot or back foot with the non-weight-bearing leg relaxed, allowing them to freely redistribute their weight and highlight different punctuations in the text. This posture can be recognised from typical 17th-century paintings and statues, and was considered the epitome of elegance and grace. The singer’s right side is the ‘good side’ and the left is the ‘bad side’ (based on the notion that the ‘sinister’, from the Italian ‘sinistra’, was the side of the devil). High status characters (royalty, heroes) stand towards the right or centre of the stage, while lower status characters (shepherds, servants) stand on the left. Singers should not walk and sing at the same time, but other characters on stage may move backwards and forwards when listening to the person singing. These rules can and should be broken in order to convey extreme emotions or states, such as madness. Liberata Collective has developed an interest in the practice, finding that it brings a unique focus and intensity to performances of Baroque and Classical opera.

-Olivia Doutney & Susanna MacRae