The Rival Sirens: Performance and Identity on Handel's Operatic Stage

Author:   Suzanne Aspden (University of Oxford)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781108829243


Pages:   307
Publication Date:   25 June 2020
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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The Rival Sirens: Performance and Identity on Handel's Operatic Stage


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Overview

The tale of the onstage fight between prima donnas Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni is notorious, appearing in music histories to this day, but it is a fiction. Starting from this misunderstanding, The Rival Sirens suggests that the rivalry fostered between the singers in 1720s London was in large part a social construction, one conditioned by local theatrical context and audience expectations, and heightened by manipulations of plot and music. This book offers readings of operas by Handel and Bononcini as performance events, inflected by the audience's perceptions of singer persona and contemporary theatrical and cultural contexts. Through examining the case of these two women, Suzanne Aspden demonstrates that the personae of star performers, as well as their voices, were of crucial importance in determining the shape of an opera during the early part of the eighteenth century.

Full Product Details

Author:   Suzanne Aspden (University of Oxford)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.760kg
ISBN:  

9781108829243


ISBN 10:   1108829244
Pages:   307
Publication Date:   25 June 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The character of the actress; 2. 'Heroick virtue' in Rodelinda and Astianatte; 3. Identification and illusion in Alessandro and Admeto; 4. Balancing power in Riccardo Primo; 5. Senesino and the crisis of heroic masculinity; 6. The ornamental voice.

Reviews

'... uses the largely fictitious rivalry between opera divas Francesca Cuzzoni (1696-1778) and Faustina Bordoni (1697-1781) as the departure point for investigating identity and concepts of self in 18th century theatre and opera seria ... Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.' S. C. Champagne, Choice 'Aspden brings new insights to the Cuzzoni/Bordoni operas and to opera seria of the early eighteenth century through her study of sources relating to spoken drama and acting.' Angela Escott, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research 'This account should appeal to those with an interest in the role of women in the operatic world of the 1720s. The author draws together threads from an impressive range of sources ... this is a good read for the sophisticated Handel opera enthusiast.' Ursula Brett, The Consort ... uses the largely fictitious rivalry between opera divas Francesca Cuzzoni (1696-1778) and Faustina Bordoni (1697-1781) as the departure point for investigating identity and concepts of self in 18th century theatre and opera seria ... Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. S. C. Champagne, Choice Aspden brings new insights to the Cuzzoni/Bordoni operas and to opera seria of the early eighteenth century through her study of sources relating to spoken drama and acting. Angela Escott, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research This account should appeal to those with an interest in the role of women in the operatic world of the 1720s. The author draws together threads from an impressive range of sources ... this is a good read for the sophisticated Handel opera enthusiast. Ursula Brett, The Consort


Author Information

Suzanne Aspden is a lecturer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Oxford. As a leading Handel scholar, she has made numerous appearances on BBC Radio and Television and has been the co-editor of the Cambridge Opera Journal since 2009. Her research interests include opera and identity politics in music, and she has been awarded a number of fellowships in the US, UK and India. She has published articles in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Musical Quarterly, the Journal of the Royal Music Association and the Cambridge Opera Journal and is co-editor, with Michael Burden, of a forthcoming book on Cavalli's Erismena.

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