SEAN BELL
Countertenor and Performance Artist
This project is a colaboration with pianist and composer Petra Cini. It explores the dynamic between early and contemporary music. It brings together two distinct artistic voices in a shared exploration of the space between composition and performance, tradition and transformation.
Petra draws inspiration from Antonio Valente’s Intavolatura de Cimbalo (1576), reworking it through her pianistic and compositional language in a new piece for piano, voice, electronics, and electric baroque guitar. In parallel, I presents new arrangements of John Coprario’s Funeral Tears (1606), reimagined through my background in early vocal music, contemporary sound, and performance practice.
The concert unfolds as a musical diptych: two separate but interlinked sound worlds built around historical repertoire, shaped through dialogue and shared inquiry.
A three-part project directed, produced, and performed by Sean Bell. Based on the concept of the singer as storyteller. Performed at Oslo Rom for Dans in May 2024, premiering two works by composers Robert Nettleship (UK) and Harald Jordal (NO). The project was supported by the Miscellaneous grant for recently graduated artists from the Norwegian Government Grants for Artists and commission support from the Arts Council Norway for the piece ‘Reduced (to the role of onlooker)’. The performance was produced in collaboration with VoxLAB.
Part 1
British lute songs from the early 17th century, performed solo self-accompanied with baroque guitar. With a special focus on songs by Thomas Campion, lesser-known composers from the period 1600-1660 in England are explored.
In these songs the singer often portrays different characters and emotions, shifting between reality and fiction – honesty and deception.
Part 2
Shakespearian Tales of Woe by composer Robert Nettleship (UK) for countertenor and drum kit. This work is based on texts by the composer and explores the singer's role as narrator.
Thematically, the lyrics are inspired by situations the composer experienced while travelling. The material playfully explores the intersection between fiction and truth in how personal observations are presented. Here the composer interweaves inspiration and references from Shakespeare's poetry with graphic notation, improvisation and intricate musical lines.
Part 3
Reduced (to the role of onlooker) by composer Harald Jordal (NO), for countertenor, soundtrack, sensor, video and lamp.
This work explores mediation in the meeting between vocal expressions, theatre, electronics and the audience. Inspired by different musical styles, Jordal questions the frontman's power over the media, through self-realisation and reduction.
A performative video installation with a sequence that repeats every 15 minutes. The singer is seen on the video screen while singing and gesturing towards the objects in the room, they are activated. The audience is invited to stay and follow the video of the operatic performance, listening with headphones.
While the singer gesticulates and acquires the objects, the observer experiences a form of duality. On the one hand, we see the cables connecting the objects behind the screen, and we understand that the video controls the movements, but at the same time we can get the feeling that the singer is actually in the room, commanding the objects with his gestures. The "homemade and everyday" properties of the objects provide a somewhat humorous and paradoxical contrast to the philosophical thought evoked by the song's lyrics.
‘A Kinetic Opera’ was co-created by Sean Bell and visual artist Roddy Bell, it was exhibited at Østfold kunstsenter gallery (NO) from January-March 2024.
No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine
No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine is a multimedia performance piece, exploring the use of operatic early music in performance art. Inspired by the book ‘Heart of Darkness’ (1902) by Joseph Conrad, it re-imagines music by G. F. Handel (1685-1759) through sound, text, movement and voice.
By abandoning a traditional narrative, the elements and styles are invited to interplay. Light and darkness are now the main characters. The piece seeks to realise different expressive possibilities by combining elements; audio and visual, movement and sound, operatic style and performative style, text and music. In this way the project explores how different languages contrast, interfere and communicate with each other.
No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine was developed through my artistic research at The Royal Conservatoire The Hague, NL.
Stille Amare
Stille Amare, which means bitter drops, is a multimedia performance for voice, sound and video. The piece is centred around the aria ‘Stille Amare’ from the opera ‘Tolomeo, re d’Egitto’ by Handel. It is the central piece within No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine.
The stylized and theatrical language of opera is here brought together with more abstract and expressive elements of performance through sound, image, movement and text. These elements contrast, interfere and communicate with each other, creating dissonance.
In this way, the opera’s tradition is challenged and questioned. The libretto is left in its original form as a poetic part of the music, and through its new relation to the other elements, other interpretations reveal themselves.
The performance was selected for the annual National State Exhibition in 2021 and presented at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo.
The stylized and theatrical language of opera is here brought together with more abstract and expressive elements of performance through sound, image, movement and text. These elements contrast, interfere and communicate with each other, creating dissonance.
In this way, the opera’s tradition is challenged and questioned. The libretto is left in its original form as a poetic part of the music, and through its new relation to the other elements, other interpretations reveal themselves.
The performance was selected for the annual National State Exhibition in 2021 and presented at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo.
The duo Andersen/Bell is the long lasting collaboration between guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Andreas Vangen Andersen and countertenor Sean Bell.
They have specialised in working with atmospheric expression in songs through inventive and delicate arrangements. Through non-traditional rearrangements the duo combines different musical styles and traditions in an innovative way. With experience from classical music, jazz and folk music, combined with distinctive instrumentations, the duo holds a unique place in the Norwegian music scene.
Baroque Project
In their latest project, the duo explores the combination of oud and countertenor. In the encounter between the ancient Arabic instrument and the European voice type, cultural contrasts are explored through a common musical material.
Based on music from two of the masters of the baroque; Henry Purcell and J. S. Bach, the oud's role in the history of the lute is explored. By placing the instrument in a new tradition, the music is formed through the oud's character and belonging musical landscapes.
Mjukt Skjer Åra - Folklore meets modernism.
An exploration of Norwegian composers through vocal music, with Geirr Tveitt as the anchor point. With this project, the duo delve into songs by various Norwegian composers from the last century and draw lines from Grieg to the present day.
By focusing on Geirr Tveitt's songs, the duo comment on his role in the Norwegian music history. There are many hidden gems in the Norwegian song repertoire. In this project the duo has made a varied selection of songs that reflect the times they were written and shows how their themes interact.
Sean Bell has done several collaborations with the Norwegian brass quintet Ny Norsk Messingkvintett. Their first project together was instigated by the composers group from Ny Musikk (NMK) in 2017, which premiered five pieces for countertenor and brass quintet.
Since then, they have collaborated on and comissioned many more pieces. Their most played work is the semi-staged concert for children ‘Eg er ein frosk’ (2018) by Norwegian composer Kristin Bolstad.
Read more about NyNorsk Messingkvintett here.
NyNorsk Messingkvintett and Sean Bell performing:
by Tze Yeung Ho, text by Linda Gabrielsen, live recorded in Sandefjord in 2021