Understanding the Women of Mozart's Operas
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A01=Kristi Brown-Montesano
academia
academic studies
Author_Kristi Brown-Montesano
Category=AVLF
Category=AVN
Category=AVP
class in opera
cosi fan tutte
die zauberflote
don giovanni
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
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eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
famous opera
femininity
feminism in classical music
feminist studies
heros narrative
historical gap
le nozze di gargo
libretto text
literary analysis
male protagonist
marriage of figaro
maternity
men who wrote women well
mozart and women
multi-dimensional female characters
music appreciation
music history
political issues within opera
provocative social issues
sisterhood
Product details
- ISBN 9780520248021
- Weight: 635g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 07 Feb 2007
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Is "The Marriage of Figaro" just about Figaro? Is Don Giovanni's story the only one - or even the most interesting one - in the opera that bears his name? For generations of critics, historians, and directors, it's Mozart's men who have mattered most. Too often, the female characters have been understood from the male protagonist'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. It's time to give Mozart's women - and Mozart's multi-dimensional portrayals of feminine character - their due. In this lively book, Kristi Brown-Montesano offers a detailed exploration of the female roles in Mozart's four most frequently performed operas, "Le nozze di Figaro", "Don Giovanni", "Cosi fan tutte", and "Die Zauberflote". 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 hero's narrative or the stock figure of convention.
From amiable Zerlina, to the awesome Queen of the Night, to calculating Despina, all of Mozart'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 concepts - past and current - influence our appreciation of these fascinating representations of women.
Kristi Brown-Montesano teaches music history at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles.
