Voicing gender : Castrati, Travesti, and the second woman in early-nineteenth-century Italian opera / Naomi André.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

André, Naomi Adele.

Series:

Musical meaning and interpretation

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Opera--Italy--19th century--History and criticism.

Opera.

Feminism and music.

Heroines in opera.

Physical Description:

xiii, 230 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2006]

Summary:

The early 19th century was a period of acute transition in operatictradition and style, when time-honored practices gave way to the developingaesthetics of Romanticism, the rise of the tenor overtook the falling stars of thecastrati, and the heroic, the masculine, and the feminine were profoundlyreconfigured. These transformations resounded in operatic plot structures as well;the happy resolution of the 18th century twisted into a tragic 19th-century finalewith the death of the helpless and innocent heroine -- and frequently her tenor heroalong with her. Female voices which formerly had sung en travesti, or basically inmale drag, opposite their female character counterparts then took on roles of thesecond woman, a companion and foil to the death-bound heroine rather than herromantic partner. In Voicing Gender, Naomi Andr skillfully traces the developmentof female characters in these first decades of the century, weaving in and aroundthese changes in voicings and plot lines, to define an emergent legacy in operaticroles.

Contents:

Prelude : hearing voices

Sounding voices : modeling voice and the period ear

Haunting legacies : the Castrato in the nineteenth century

Meyerbeer in Italy : the crusader, the Castrato, and the disguised second woman

Interlude : queens, hybridity, and the diva

Taming women's voices : from hero to pageboy

Women's voices in motion : voices behind the romantic heroine

Coda : looking ahead to Risorgimento heroism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [183]-222) and index.

ISBN:

0253346444

025321789X

OCLC:

60603277