k 2025

Kiss Me, Oh Kiss Me, Set Me Free

KRAMÁR, Richie Lux

Basic information

Original name

Kiss Me, Oh Kiss Me, Set Me Free

Edition

Some Like it Hot, The 6th biennial PARSE conference, Göteborg, Švédsko, 2025

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Presentations at conferences

Field of Study

60400 6.4 Arts

Country of publisher

Sweden

Confidentiality degree

is not subject to a state or trade secret

References:

Marked to be transferred to RIV

Yes

Organization unit

Theatre Faculty

Keywords in English

Artistic research; opera; Rusalka; trans-feminism; performative experiment; queer mouth; trans vocality; embodiment; radical meaning-making; somatic response.

Tags

International impact
Changed: 20/3/2026 13:47, Mgr. Jana Kořínková, Ph.D.

Abstract

In the original language

This contribution presents a performative and speculative reflection on the second stage of the doctoral artistic research project "MONSTER SINGS" (MONŠTRUM SPIEVA). The presentation consists of a textual performance accompanied by short films documenting a performative experiment. Using a "queer and trans-feminist lens", the research offers an "unfaithful reconstruction" of the finale of Act I of Dvořák’s Rusalka. The core of the study is the "kiss", interpreted as a "precarious act of translation, transition, and transformation". The author explores the "kiss" as a "sonic and somatic response to crisis" and a way of speaking through and beyond another body. Through the concept of the "queer, trans, and accented mouth", the work investigates how the "mouth" acts as a site of "combustion" and "accumulation of histories". The research deconstructs the traditional operatic narrative of sacrifice, reimagining transformation as a "magnum opus" that allows for "pleasure and abundance" instead of "imposed silence". By interweaving operatic libretto with "queer poetics" and "trans vocality", the contribution proposes the "kiss" as a model of "radical meaning-making" and artistic intervention. The accompanying video documentation captures these physical and vocal manifestations, situating the project at the intersection of opera studies, trans studies, and contemporary performance art.