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.
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