Reading katems's post on Fine Arts and Feminism got me thinking some more about opera and feminism. I am an aspiring opera singer, and I put my own interpretations of character into the arias I sing, as I mentioned in my comment there.
However, I've also recently discovered that I greatly enjoy composing. I'm casually working on an opera of The Scarlet Letter right now, which is not a feminist text at all but which is a rather operatic one.
So here are my two questions:
1. What operas would you consider feminist? Both generally and in ways certain roles can be interpreted.
2. What good feminist stories ought to be made into operas? I could stand to have more than one side project.
(For the record, I probably shouldn't leak this, but there's an opera of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower coming out soon.)
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Great question! I'm a classical musician also, and have spent too many hours of musicology class talking about all the prostitutes who get punished for their sins by dying of consumption. Dying women, punished by love, illness, fate, etc. seem to be a requirement, certainly for Romantic period operas up through Wagner.
Certainly the beauty and depth of the MUSICAL material given to women performers is fantastic in opera. The beauty of the female voice and the versatility of the actress is at the center of so many operas, which is cool.
Of course, when the beautiful musical material is given to a tired female "archetype" (young soprano woman trapped by controlling father, young soprano woman in love, seductive and evil alto/mezzo roles, etc.) in a doomed patriarchal society, it's less satisfying for us.
Salome jumps to mind as a kind of "girl power" figure: she is the title role, and has kinky, boundary-pushing sex onstage. But her damnation, insanity and the fact that Strauss (no feminist) composed the role are in the minus column.
What about earlier work, like Mozart? I seem to remember that Mozart composed more feisty, intelligent characters with great humor and energy to their operatic personalities. Of course, they were still locked up in love triangles/quartets and had mean daddies, I'm pretty sure.
Contemporary operas I'm familiar with aren't necessarily misogynistic, but not feminist either. John Adam's take on 20th century topics, like Nixon in China and Death of Klinghoffer, don't seem particularly interested in women. Ned Rorem recently set Our Town as an opera; nothing revolutionary there. John Harbison set The Great Gatsby a few years ago; Daisy and Myrtle don't exactly get your heart racing for womankind.
Well, shoot! I hope someone else can think of some, and I'll post back as I consider it more. Thanks for the opportunity to think about this.
Robin McKinley's Deerskin would make a good opera, I think.
I thought of Serpina in Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona immediately; I like that despite being a servant woman she clearly has all the power in her relationship with Uberto. I watched Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin for the first time just recently, and was fairly impressed. I like that in the infamous letter scene she is taking initiative to confront Onegin about her feelings (even though she gets shot down...) which seems impropitious to most operatic heroines, and that she rejects Onegin in turn at the end of Act II. It's a nice change from all the heroines are so helplessly in love that they lose all pride and integrity.
And Carmen comes to mind of course, as she must be the closest thing to an independent, progressive, sexually liberated feminist icon in opera.
I will also think about this more... it is an interesting question!
The Handmaid's Tale was made into an opera!
Ellenrose: ...Mimi's not a prostitute... anyway, I'm nowhere near as familiar with Mozart as I'd like to be, but do you think Susanna in Nozze could be seen as feminist?
Jenn: Great call on Tatiana in Onegin! And Carmen, of course - I love how she's so unapologetic about having multiple boyfriends. (And Escamillo gets points too for being OK with it.)
Holly: Indeed! I've never heard it, but it's supposed to be good.
What about Tosca? Obviously she goes through a lot of psychological torture and commits suicide, but she's a strong character. And I really like how her relationship with Mario is portrayed. (Also, there's a great anecdote I read somewhere about a performance, with Callas in the title role I think, where instead of jumping, she just walked off like a queen.)
Or Rosina in Barbiere. (I don't see Nozze as canonical with Barbiere.)
(Here's a pretty sweet feminist analysis of Turandot.)
Opera's an interesting subject for feminism, too, because of the gender-bending - all the male stereotypes that go into the part of Cherubino, for example.