Les chanteuses à la barre

In the 18th century, Naples is considered as the uncontested capital of opera. Singing for opere buffe or opere serie, the female opera singers hired by the Neapolitan public theatres play an important role in promoting the musical prestige of the city. However a social stigmat is still attaches to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mélanie Traversier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Criminocorpus 2014-04-01
Series:Criminocorpus
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2691
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841557968510779392
author Mélanie Traversier
author_facet Mélanie Traversier
author_sort Mélanie Traversier
collection DOAJ
description In the 18th century, Naples is considered as the uncontested capital of opera. Singing for opere buffe or opere serie, the female opera singers hired by the Neapolitan public theatres play an important role in promoting the musical prestige of the city. However a social stigmat is still attaches to them: in the best way they are described as capricious, in the worst they are viewed as scandalous temptresses threatening the social order. The archives of the competent court for public performances and their professionals reflect this ambivalence. The judicial documentation that have been neglected in the past by the historians of opera reveals the internal professional tensions inside the “showbiz society”, involving female and male singers against the theatres directors. But it also illustrates the complex relations between the female singers and their male concurrents on the operatic stage, and between them and their companions or protectors. These conflicts exposed on court help to understand the singularity of the female singers’ career, their progressive professionalization, and beyond the difficult and slow redefinition of their image in the social representations. On this basis, this article falls within the conjunction of a dual recent historiographical renewal considering the performing arts: on the one hand, the history of the relationships between law, legal practices and drama; on the other hand, the history of opera and vocal performances revisited by the gender studies.
format Article
id doaj-art-0bad2fbf066e4c279f7401016d2ecb3a
institution Kabale University
issn 2108-6907
language English
publishDate 2014-04-01
publisher Criminocorpus
record_format Article
series Criminocorpus
spelling doaj-art-0bad2fbf066e4c279f7401016d2ecb3a2025-01-06T09:15:27ZengCriminocorpusCriminocorpus2108-69072014-04-0110.4000/criminocorpus.2691Les chanteuses à la barreMélanie TraversierIn the 18th century, Naples is considered as the uncontested capital of opera. Singing for opere buffe or opere serie, the female opera singers hired by the Neapolitan public theatres play an important role in promoting the musical prestige of the city. However a social stigmat is still attaches to them: in the best way they are described as capricious, in the worst they are viewed as scandalous temptresses threatening the social order. The archives of the competent court for public performances and their professionals reflect this ambivalence. The judicial documentation that have been neglected in the past by the historians of opera reveals the internal professional tensions inside the “showbiz society”, involving female and male singers against the theatres directors. But it also illustrates the complex relations between the female singers and their male concurrents on the operatic stage, and between them and their companions or protectors. These conflicts exposed on court help to understand the singularity of the female singers’ career, their progressive professionalization, and beyond the difficult and slow redefinition of their image in the social representations. On this basis, this article falls within the conjunction of a dual recent historiographical renewal considering the performing arts: on the one hand, the history of the relationships between law, legal practices and drama; on the other hand, the history of opera and vocal performances revisited by the gender studies.https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2691theaterprisongendergender studiesfemale opera singerlaw
spellingShingle Mélanie Traversier
Les chanteuses à la barre
Criminocorpus
theater
prison
gender
gender studies
female opera singer
law
title Les chanteuses à la barre
title_full Les chanteuses à la barre
title_fullStr Les chanteuses à la barre
title_full_unstemmed Les chanteuses à la barre
title_short Les chanteuses à la barre
title_sort les chanteuses a la barre
topic theater
prison
gender
gender studies
female opera singer
law
url https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2691
work_keys_str_mv AT melanietraversier leschanteusesalabarre