Understanding the women of Mozart's operas / Kristi Brown-Montesano.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown-Montesano, Kristi, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791. Operas.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus.

Characters and characteristics in opera.

Women in opera.

Physical Description:

xxv, 316 pages : music ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2007]

Summary:

This is a remarkably original, persuasive, and well-written book. The literary and psychological interpretations of these fictional but semi-legendary women are astute and well-presented, so that even casual lovers of Mozart's operas can absorb and learn useful things. In every case, Brown's detailed analyses of these famous female characters enlarges their human and dramatic potential far beyond their inherited and stereotypical roles. They emerge from Brown's reinterpretation as considerably more complex and interesting than one may have imagined them. This is a rich and rewarding reading experience."--David Littlejohn, author of "The Ultimate Art: Essays Around and About Opera

Contents:

Overture xi

Act 1 (Anti-)Heroines and Women on the Edge

1 Feminine Vengeance I: The Assailed/Assailant / Donna Anna 1

2 Sisterhood and Seduction I: Abandonment and Rescue / Donna Elvira 34

3 Class Survival / Zerlina 61

4 Feminine Vengeance II: (Over)Powered Politics / The Queen of the Night 81

5 Good Daughter, Good Wife / Pamina 107

6 Woman's Identity I: Sacred and Profane / The Three Ladies and Papagena 136

Act 2 Sisterly Alliances and Sisters Subverted

7 Sisterhood and Seduction II: Friendship and Class / Countess Almaviva and Susanna 155

8 Woman's Identity II: Loss and Legitimacy / Marcellina , Barbarina 194

9 Sisterhood and Seduction III: Intimacy and Influence / Fiordiligi, Dorabella 213

10 Survival Class / Despina 259.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-304) and index.

ISBN:

0520248023

OCLC:

65204972

Publisher Number:

9780520248021

Online:

Publisher description