Songbirds and Sirens

Examines the ways in which performers, composters, and operatic works shape and relfect cultural attitudes about gender and music. The interdisciplinary nature of opera, which combines text, music, and theatrical performance, will be considered through methodologies developed in music, literary criticism, theater and gender studies. Interplay between operatic characters and the public and private lives of women singers will deepen our engagement with both the artistic works we study and the cultures in which they were first forged.