Divas

After our last class I began thinking about how women in the operas we have watched thus far have been portrayed. We have seen women with strength, power, the ability to manipulate, and weakness. I would say that the majority of female characters in opera are portrayed as weak, immoral or lacking any significant intelligence. Someone mentioned in class that even strong female characters are often given at least one flaw so as not to seem too powerful and therefore more acceptable to an audience. I think it ultimately comes down to keeping this stereotypical idea of what is “feminine.”

I would have to say that out of all of the operas we have looked at Cleopatra has been the strongest by far. She is certainly a woman of independent thought, and lives and dies one her own terms. I look forward to the day when it is no longer rare to come across an opera with a truly strong female lead. Cunegonde was relatively strong in my opinion, but not powerful, her strength came in her ability to manipulate and scheme. The role of Anne Stanton was written around weakness and uncertainty. She had great difficulty making up her own mind, and seemed to lack any true convictions. Juliana is the epitome of the opera diva, and Tina seems to just live in her shadow. Neither woman is particularly kind, and in my opinion, they appear to be quite petty and at times nothing less than cruel.

I wonder if the lack of strong positive female characters in opera comes from a lack of female composers writing operas. It boggles my mind why in this day and age it is such a struggle for women composers. I am by no means an expert on opera after 1950, but I can’t think of a single opera written by a woman after 1950 or before. It is still such a male dominated field, but one that I think could be enriched greatly by a new and female perspective.