The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century

Female characters assumed increasing prominence in the narrative of nineteenth and early twentieth century opera. Many of these characters--and the celebrated women who played them--still stand at the center of how contemporary audiences define opera at its finest and most searingly affective, even if their storylines leave them swooning and faded by the end of the staged evening itself. The presence and representation of women in opera has been addressed in a range of recent studies that offer valuable insights into the cultural work of opera, focusing a critical lens at the text and the position and signification of the female character. Moving that lens onto the historical,The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Centuryshines a light on the singers who created and inhabited these roles, the flesh-and-blood women who embodied these fabled "doomed women" onstage before an audience. Editors Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss lead a cast of renowned contributors in an impressive display of current approaches to the lives, careers, and performances of the female opera singer. Essential theoretical perspectives combine into three broad themes woven throughout the volume-the emergence of the quasi-mythical figure of the diva; explorations of the intricate and sundry arts associated with the prima donna; and the diversity of contemporary responses to her. The prima donne influenced compositional practices, determined musical and dramatic interpretation, and affected management decisions about the running of the opera house, content of the season, and employment of other artists-a clear demonstration that her position as the "first woman" extended well beyond the boards of operatic stage itself. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Centuryis an important addition to the collections of students and researchers in Opera Studies, Nineteenth Century music, performance and gender, and cultural studies, as well as to the shelves of opera singers and enthusiasts.

Rachel Cowgill is Professor of Music at Cardiff University, and editor of the Journal of the Royal Musical Association. Her research encompasses British music and musical cultures, Italian opera, Mozart reception, and gender and sexuality, and has appeared in Cambridge Opera Journal, JRMA, Early Music, Musical Times, and collections from Ashgate, Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Oxford University Press, and Princeton University Press. Rachel co-edited Europe, Empire, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century British Music (Ashgate, 2006), Music in the British Provinces, 1690-1914 (Ashgate, 2007), and Art and Ideology in European Opera (Boydell & Brewer, 2010).

Hilary Poriss is Associate Professor at Northeastern University, Boston. Her research interests focus on Italian opera, performance practice, diva culture, and the aesthetics of nineteenth-century musical culture. She is the author of Changing the Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance (Oxford University Press, 2009); and co-editor, with Roberta Montemorra Marvin of Fashions and Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (Cambridge University Press, 2010). She has published articles and reviews in 19th-Century Music, Cambridge Opera Journal, Verdi Forum, and Nineteenth-Century Music Review.