Scholarly Paper Competition Call for Papers

Annual Scholarly Paper Competition

Scholarly investigation is indispensable to the field of opera, especially as a basis for production and performance.

The National Opera Association is pleased to announce its Twenty-ninth Scholarly Papers Competition, 2013, for outstanding scholarly papers on operatic subjects.

Eligibility

The competition is open to any interested author. Membership in NOA is not required.

No registration fee is required. Deadline for submission: May 30, 2013.

Author notification: after September 1, 2013.

Previous winners of this competition may not re-apply, but are strongly encouraged to submit articles for consideration to The Opera Journal, an NOA publication.

Guidelines

The scholarly paper should explore an operatic subject, present significant research and conclusions, and include an extensive bibliography citing primary, secondary and, if applicable, tertiary sources. Authors should follow these guidelines:

  • The paper must be no more than 3000 words in length.
  • The paper's title, the name of its author, address, telephone, and email information should be provided on the application form in a separate attachment. The author's name should not appear on the paper.
  • Only one submission per person is admissible and must be accompanied by a statement confirming that the paper is not under copyright by any party other than the author and that it has not been previously published.
  • Papers previously presented orally are eligible as long as they have not or will not be published in any proceedings.
  • Papers will be judged particularly for significant advances in research and conclusions that shed new light on an operatic topic dealing with music drama, the libretto, the history of the genre, etc.
  • Topics may be as broad as the field of opera itself, which includes historical and theoretical analysis of the music and libretto (along lines of current and past critical theory and translation thereof), singing, acting, costuming, stagecraft, theater, etc.
  • The jury will consider the clarity and quality of the writing, judge the acceptability of the paper for publication in The Opera Journal, and will also rate papers on their overall suitability to be read in an abridged version of no more than twenty minutes length at the convention's Scholarly Papers Session.

Awards

The winner will be invited to read her/his paper during the Scholarly Papers Session at the annual convention in January, 2014, in New York. The Leland Fox Scholarly Paper Stipend of $500 will be awarded to the reader of a winning paper at the annual convention.

The winning paper will be published in The Opera Journal.

Copies of papers not selected, accompanied by the committee's critiques, will be forwarded to the editor of the journal for possible consideration for publication.

Submission Procedure

There is no application fee for the competition.

Papers must be submitted electronically in Word or a PDF file.  Send a completed application form (available as a Word document or PDF form) along with the paper, and any inquiries about the competition to:

Catherine Payn, NOA Research Committee Chairperson
cpayn@bucknell.edu
570.490.1995

Recent Scholarly Papers

Scholarly Papers 2012

Spanish Operatic Identity vis-a-vis Bizet's Carmen
Luis Gustavo Castro-Ramirez

Scholarly Papers 2011

Recitative for the Peuple
Julia I. Doe, Yale University

Operatic Achievements on the European Scale: 19th Century Mexico
Anna Ochs, University of Chicago

Scholarly Papers 2010

Medée et son pouvoir: Music and Dramatic Structure in Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Medée
Alison DeSimone, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Enacting the Nation on Stage: Style, Subjects and Themes in American Opera Librettos of the 1910s
Aaron Ziegel, Urbana, Illinois

Scholarly Papers 2009

The Evolution of American Opera:  Robert Ward’s The Crucible
Dr. Robert Kolt, Indiana University – South Bend

The Face That Launched A Hundred Arieas:  Helen of Troy and the Reversal of a Reputation in Seventeenth-century Venetian Opera
Reba Wissner, Brandeis University

Scholarly Papers 2008

Wagner, Appia, and “Authorial Intention”
Dr. David Ronis, Queens College

Between Scenes:  Transitions and Wagnerian Form
Dr. David Smyth, Louisiana State University


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