Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women’s Voices in Seventeenth-Century VeniceOpera developed during a time when the position of women—their rights and freedoms, their virtues and vices, and even the most basic substance of their sexuality—was constantly debated. 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 engaging 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. Heller begins by examining contemporary Venetian writings about gender and sexuality that influenced the development of female vocality in opera. The Venetian reception and transformation of ancient texts—by Ovid, Virgil, Tacitus, and Diodorus Siculus—form the background for her penetrating analyses of the musical and dramatic representation of five extraordinary women as presented in operas by Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, and their successors in Venice: Dido, queen of Carthage (Cavalli); Octavia, wife of Nero (Monteverdi); the nymph Callisto (Cavalli); Queen Semiramis of Assyria (Pietro Andrea Ziani); and Messalina, wife of Claudius (Carlo Pallavicino). |
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Contents
1 | 27 |
Thais Taide Girolamo Ercolani Le eroine della solitudine sacra ovvero vite dalcune romite sacre 1655 | 44 |
Paolo Botti La donna dipoche parole commendata 1663 | 46 |
Opera and the Accademia degli Incogniti | 48 |
Didone and the Voice of Chastity | 82 |
The Stages of Didos LamentBusenello and Virgil | 114 |
Woman and Empire | 136 |
Chronology of Significant Roman Events a d 4165 | 140 |
Annibale Carracci Diana and Endymion engraving ca 1650 | 189 |
Annibale Carracci Pan and Diana engraving ca 1650 | 190 |
Semiramide and Musical Transvestism | 220 |
Maiolino Bisaccioni La Semiramide in India 1648 | 230 |
7 | 232 |
Matteo Noris La Semiramide 1671 | 233 |
Envoicing the Courtesan | 263 |
Conclusions | 295 |
The Nurses Lessons Lincoronazione di Poppea Act 1 Scene 5 | 163 |
The Nymph Calisto and the Myth of Female Pleasure | 178 |
Peter Paul Rubens Jupiter and Callisto 1613 | 184 |
| 353 | |
| 371 | |
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Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women’s Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice Wendy Heller Limited preview - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
abandoned Accademia degli Incogniti Aeneas Aeneid Agrippina Agrippina the Younger anti-female Aprosio Arcadia Arcangela aria Arianna bass beauty Busenello Calisto Cavalli chastity Claudius condemnation conventional courtesan death demonstrate descending desire Diana Dido Dido’s Didone Didone’s discourse disguise donna donne dramatic early modern eloquence Endymion Enea Enea’s erotic example expression Faustini female feminine Ferrante Pallavicino Francesco gender Giovanni Giove Giove’s heroine husband Iarba Ibid Ireo L’incoronazione di Poppea La Calisto lament librettist libretto Loredano lover lyrical male Malipiero Marinella marriage masculine melisma Messalina Monteverdi moral Moreover musical myth Nero Nero’s Nerone Nino Nino’s Nutrice nymphs opera Ottavia Ottone Ovid Ovid’s Pallavicino Passi play pleasure political praise queen recitative rhetorical Rosand satire scene Semiramide Semiramide’s Seneca sensual Seventeenth-Century Venice sexual sings strophe Tacitus Tacitus’s Tarabotti tetrachord tion tonal transformed transvestism Venetian opera Venice Venice’s Virgil’s virtue voice wife woman women writings Ziani
Bibliographic information
| Title | Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women’s Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice |
| Author | Wendy Heller |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of California Press, 2003 |
| ISBN | 0520209338, 9780520209336 |
| Length | 386 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Europe / General Music / Genres & Styles / Opera Music / History & Criticism |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |