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A revelatory study of how composers and dramatists of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France criticized and trivialized independent women in their portrayals of them in works of theater and opera.
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French theatrical works created an uneasy dialogue with the often-blistering depictions of marriage in contemporary writings by literary women. For over a century, composers and librettists attempted to silence such anti-traditionalist views through dramas that ridicule, banish, or, even more violently, silence and subjugate female characters who resist marriage. These dramas portray independent-minded women as agents ofchaos who deploy their sexuality to destabilize class demarcations, or to destroy families and at times the monarchy itself.
Coquettes, Wives, and Widows: Gender Politics in French Baroque Opera and Theater shows how dramatists wrested narratives away from women and weaponized those narratives in a defense of the status quo. It examines a wide range of works of different types: from Jean-Philippe Rameau's Platée, ou Junon jalouseand André Campra's Aréthuse, ou la Vengeance de l'Amour to representative works from the Comédie Française, the Comédie Italienne, and the fairgound theaters. Each theater offered denigrating portraits of independent womenas dissolute, obstinate, and extremist.
The operas and other theatrical works explored in Coquettes, Wives, and Widows reveal who (in the view of many at the time) should exercise authority to make choices aboutwomen's lives. They also give evidence of widespread fears about how society might change if it were to grant women themselves that responsibility.
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French theatrical works created an uneasy dialogue with the often-blistering depictions of marriage in contemporary writings by literary women. For over a century, composers and librettists attempted to silence such anti-traditionalist views through dramas that ridicule, banish, or, even more violently, silence and subjugate female characters who resist marriage. These dramas portray independent-minded women as agents ofchaos who deploy their sexuality to destabilize class demarcations, or to destroy families and at times the monarchy itself.
Coquettes, Wives, and Widows: Gender Politics in French Baroque Opera and Theater shows how dramatists wrested narratives away from women and weaponized those narratives in a defense of the status quo. It examines a wide range of works of different types: from Jean-Philippe Rameau's Platée, ou Junon jalouseand André Campra's Aréthuse, ou la Vengeance de l'Amour to representative works from the Comédie Française, the Comédie Italienne, and the fairgound theaters. Each theater offered denigrating portraits of independent womenas dissolute, obstinate, and extremist.
The operas and other theatrical works explored in Coquettes, Wives, and Widows reveal who (in the view of many at the time) should exercise authority to make choices aboutwomen's lives. They also give evidence of widespread fears about how society might change if it were to grant women themselves that responsibility.
Price: $120.00
Pages: 202
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Publication Date:
10 May 2020
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781580469883
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Opera, Opera, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, DRAMA / European / French, Gender studies: women and girls
Marcie Ray explores women's character types in French comic entertainments, contextualizing spectacles and their themes within a broad array of literary and historical works and stylistic trends. Ray probes questions ranging from identity to reception in her efforts to locate the sites and mechanisms involved in women's quest for cultural authority in the eighteenth century. Coquettes, Wives, and Widows is timely, intriguing, and significant.
— Margaret Butler, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Well fleshed-out, with detailed and well-documented case studies. [The consideration of] legal contexts is greatly welcome, allowing the author to dig further into the thick social and mental reality of French society during the Ancien Régime. The discussion of the "coquette" focuses on how the treatment of a social class could serve to critique and denigrate women who sought to please in order to turn their charms to profit. . . .Astute. . . . Teems with ideas.
— REVUE DE MUSICOLOGIE
Ray argues convincingly that the limited scope of action for female characters in theatre and opera reflected gender politics and the fear of processes of emancipation in real life - a debate that is most often discussed for the decadent femme fatale characters of fin-de-siècle opera. The nuanced contextualisation of the French comic plots provides a completely new angle to this narrative.
— CAMBRIDGE OPERA JOURNAL
Demonstrat[es] that even without a tragic, violent end, dramas can entrench patriarchal and misogynistic ideas about women and actively work to silence the narratives women create for themselves. An excellent example of how this kind of work can be done.
— EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC
Ray shows, in a persuasive manner, how the striking portrayals [of women characters in these operas] varied between misogynistic ridicule and a pointed emphasis on [women's] self-realization-and how these took on different nuances depending on the theatrical context, the style of acting, the makeup of the audience, and the topics of discussion that were brought forth.
— DIE MUSIKFORSCHUNG
Wide-ranging by virtue of encompassing both musical and spoken theatrical genres of the period-a welcome approach that challenges artificial boundaries between academic disciplines.
— MUSIC & LETTERS
— Margaret Butler, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Well fleshed-out, with detailed and well-documented case studies. [The consideration of] legal contexts is greatly welcome, allowing the author to dig further into the thick social and mental reality of French society during the Ancien Régime. The discussion of the "coquette" focuses on how the treatment of a social class could serve to critique and denigrate women who sought to please in order to turn their charms to profit. . . .Astute. . . . Teems with ideas.
— REVUE DE MUSICOLOGIE
Ray argues convincingly that the limited scope of action for female characters in theatre and opera reflected gender politics and the fear of processes of emancipation in real life - a debate that is most often discussed for the decadent femme fatale characters of fin-de-siècle opera. The nuanced contextualisation of the French comic plots provides a completely new angle to this narrative.
— CAMBRIDGE OPERA JOURNAL
Demonstrat[es] that even without a tragic, violent end, dramas can entrench patriarchal and misogynistic ideas about women and actively work to silence the narratives women create for themselves. An excellent example of how this kind of work can be done.
— EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC
Ray shows, in a persuasive manner, how the striking portrayals [of women characters in these operas] varied between misogynistic ridicule and a pointed emphasis on [women's] self-realization-and how these took on different nuances depending on the theatrical context, the style of acting, the makeup of the audience, and the topics of discussion that were brought forth.
— DIE MUSIKFORSCHUNG
Wide-ranging by virtue of encompassing both musical and spoken theatrical genres of the period-a welcome approach that challenges artificial boundaries between academic disciplines.
— MUSIC & LETTERS
Introduction
From Platée's Frog-like Flirt to Pompadour's Yellow Skin: Correcting the Coquette
Disciplining Widows
The Price of Independence: Women Seeking Separations
"Everywhere Our Hearts are in Danger": Cupid's Triumph and the Decline of the Indifferent Mistress
Epilogue
Appendix
From Platée's Frog-like Flirt to Pompadour's Yellow Skin: Correcting the Coquette
Disciplining Widows
The Price of Independence: Women Seeking Separations
"Everywhere Our Hearts are in Danger": Cupid's Triumph and the Decline of the Indifferent Mistress
Epilogue
Appendix