How 1950s American singers transformed stereotypical heroines into nuanced women—and changed the art form in the process
Opera as an art form has been around for more than 400 years. While tens of thousands of operas have been written, many opera companies rely on the familiar classics that are guaranteed to draw an audience. American opera, works written in English by composers in the United States, have historically found difficulty gaining acceptance with opera companies, yet these works experienced incomparable popularity after World War II. Musicologist Monica Hershberger has studied the important role of sopranos in boosting this popularity, and her book presents the first feminist perspective investigating the stories of women in American opera.
Hershberger, assistant professor of music, is author of Women in American Operas of the 1950s: Undoing Gendered Archetypes. During the 1950s, composers and librettists in the United States were attempting to create productions that were responsive to American culture and interests. Yet, they did not break from the longstanding archetype that is a standard in European opera, she says. Women were portrayed as either saintly and pure or sexually corrupt, and it was an absolute. As a result, women risked continuing a tradition of playing predictable victims in American opera.
Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences News.
Spotlight Recipient
Monica Hershberger
Assistant Professor