1. How can the opera performance and the song recital enrich each other?

2. Which elements from the explicit music theater can give me more tools for a deeper insight and understanding in the work with, and in the performance and dissemination of the implicit song recital? And which elements from the work on the song recital, its form and content, have transfer value to artistic expression and ownership as an opera singer?

The German Kunstlied is a music form created by Franz Schubert in the early 19th century. It quickly branched out into the Nordic countries, and here it got the name romanse.

The Lied- and romanse repertoire follows an entire singer's life, from the short, strophic and simple, to larger songs with more drama.

My German-Norwegian background gave me a natural introduction to this repertoire early on, where several of my passions such as music, literature, language, storytelling and communication come together.

In the work with Lieder and romanser, the focus is on diction, text understanding, sound, interpretation, communication, harmonics and musical tools. All of these are also invaluable tools when a singer wants to immerse himself in the opera genre.

I want to explore the strength in opera and romanser and look for points of intersection vocally, musically, textually, narratively and dramaturgically.
How can these genres draw on each other? What do they have in common and what separates these genres as beings?
How can elements from the musical drama enrich the expression and form of the song recital?

What can the work on Art songs give back to the art of opera? Can the small format play the role of "educator" vocally, dramaturgically, textually, narratively and conceptually?

Elements from the opera can strengthen the narratives that unfold in the intimate song recital. In the same way, working with art songs can give the opera singer new insight, security and ownership of their own artistic voice and identity.

A Lied or romanse is a mini-opera, where a drama is also played out within a very short time Poetry is the literature's formula 1, and the art songs invites wonder.
An art song is based on a poem, it is music's answer to poetry, and makes the poem even stronger by coloring the wordless moods that lie in the poem.
In opera we need to understand the action, but when you listen to a Lied you don't need to understand. Perhaps you can put it this way: We don't need to understand the Lied, but through the Lied we can get help to understand ourselves.

Via a wide range of laboratories with e.g. various directors, actors, composers, lyricists, language consultants, phoneticians, choreographers and reference groups, it will end up in concert performances as a result of continuous analysis and reflection work.

Isa Katharina Gericke is a versatile soprano in concert, chamber music and opera. The repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary. With a particular fondness for Lieder and romanser, she has made a name for herself with her self-written concert performances about historical singers. In the cabaret "Frauen sind keine Engel" with music from 1930s and 40s Berlin, she shows completely different sides. Isa is a sought-after soloist, moderator and presenter in various concepts built around classical music. Since the start in 2002, she has been the artistic director of the classical music festival Glogerfestspillene in Kongsberg, and in autumn 2022 she started her PhD in artistic research at Oslo national Academy of the Arts (KhiO).