Understanding the Women of Mozart's Operas

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Understanding the Women of Mozart's Operas

Is The Marriage of Figaro just about Figaro? Is Don Giovanniâ€™s story the only oneâ€”or even the most interesting oneâ€”in the opera that bears his name? For generations of critics, historians, and directors, itâ€™s Mozartâ€™s men who have mattered most. Too often, the female characters have been understood from the male protagonistâ€™s point of view or simply reduced on stage (and in print) to paper cutouts from the age of the powdered wig and the tightly cinched corset. Itâ€™s time to give Mozartâ€™s womenâ€”and Mozartâ€™s multi-dimensional portrayals of feminine characterâ€”their due. In this lively book, Kristi Brown-Montesano offers a detailed exploration of the female roles in Mozartâ€™s four most frequently performed operas, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, CosÃ¬ fan tutte, and Die ZauberflÃ¶te. Each chapter takes a close look at the music, libretto text, literary sources, and historical factors that give shape to a character, re-evaluating common assumptions and proposing fresh interpretations.

Brown-Montesano views each character as the subject of a story, not merely the object of a heroâ€™s narrative or the stock figure of convention. From amiable Zerlina, to the awesome Queen of the Night, to calculating Despina, all of Mozartâ€™s women have something unique to say. These readings also tackle provocative social, political, and cultural issues, which are used in the operas to define positive and negative images of femininity: revenge, power, seduction, resistance, autonomy, sacrifice, faithfulness, class, maternity, and sisterhood. Keenly aware of the historical gap between the origins of these works and contemporary culture, Brown-Montesano discusses how attitudes about such conceptsâ€”past and currentâ€”influence our appreciation of these fascinating representations of women.

Country	USA
Author	Kristi Brown-Montesano
Binding	Kindle Edition
Edition	1
EISBN	9780520932968
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	University of California Press
Manufacturer	University of California Press
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	341
PublicationDate	2007-02-07
Publisher	University of California Press
ReleaseDate	2006-01-22
Studio	University of California Press

Understanding the Women of Mozart's Operas

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