Emblems of eloquence : opera and women's voices in seventeenth-century Venice
"Opera developed during a time when the position of women - evident in their rights and freedoms, in their perceived virtues and vices, and even in how their sexuality was viewed - was under constant debate. Many of these controversies manifested themselves in the representation of the historical and mythological women whose voices were heard on the Venetian operatic stage. Drawing upon a complex web of early modern sources and ancient texts, this study is the first comprehensive treatment of women, gender, and sexuality in seventeenth-century opera. Wendy Heller explores the operatic manifestations of female chastity, power, transvestism, androgyny, and desire, showing how the emerging genre was shaped by and infused with the Republic's taste for the erotic and its ambivalent attitudes toward women and sexuality."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2003
University of California Press, Berkeley, ©2003
xix, 386 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780520209336, 0520209338
51566365
The emblematic woman
Bizzarrie feminile : opera and the Accademia degli incogniti
Didone and the voice of chastity
'Disprezzata regina' : woman and empire
The nymph Calisto and the myth of female pleasure
Semiramide and musical transvestism
Messalina la meretrice : envoicing the courtesan
Mainly in English; with some Italian, and parallel texts in Italian with English translations
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