About the Book
Is The Marriage of Figaro just about Figaro? Is Don Giovannis story the only oneor even the most interesting onein the opera that bears his name? For generations of critics, historians, and directors, its Mozarts men who have mattered most. Too often, the female characters have been understood from the male protagonists 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. Its time to give Mozarts womenand Mozarts multi-dimensional portrayals of feminine charactertheir due. In this lively book, Kristi Brown-Montesano offers a detailed exploration of the female roles in Mozarts four most frequently performed operas, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosfan tutte, and Die Zauberfle. 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 heros narrative or the stock figure of convention. From amiable Zerlina, to the awesome Queen of the Night, to calculating Despina, all of Mozarts 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 conceptspast and currentinfluence our appreciation of these fascinating representations of women.
Brown-Montesano views each character as the subject of a story, not merely the object of a heros narrative or the stock figure of convention. From amiable Zerlina, to the awesome Queen of the Night, to calculating Despina, all of Mozarts 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 conceptspast and currentinfluence our appreciation of these fascinating representations of women.