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Essay 2

According to Catherine Clément, Italian opera is mainly about the

“undoing of women.” How far is this true of the repertoire you have
studied?

Italian opera is an art form whose most important characters are often female,
but who remain nonetheless steeped in traditional gender roles. Catherine
Clément claims, “Women are (opera's) jewels... the ornament indispensable for
every festival. No prima donna, no opera. But the role of a jewel, a decorative
object, is not the deciding role; and on the opera stage women perpetually sing
their eternal undoing.” As well as aesthetics, females invoke pathos in the
audience due to their fragile and sensitive nature. Clément suggests that there
is degradation in opera that disallows a woman from maintaining her dignity,
as during the performance she is often outspoken about her emotional turmoil:
“Opera concerns women. No, there is no feminist version; no, there is no
liberation. Quite the contrary: they suffer, they cry, they die.... Glowing with
tears, their decolletes cut to the heart, they expose themselves to the gaze of
those who come to take pleasure in their pretend agonies.”1 On the other hand,
some operatic composers such as Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791) are lauded for
their criticism of contemporary ideals on gender: “Così fan tutte... most
assuredly has... a sceptical questioning of the Enlightenment, and in a certain
sense, a bridge to nineteenth-century Romanticism, and eventually, to
twentieth-century feminism.”2 Despite consideration of factors such as these, it
is important to remember that – due to the fact that prejudices continue
beyond the era in which these exceptional titles were produced – these provide
a weak countering argument and that, overall, opera cannot be considered a
medium that champions the female cause.

Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart is characterised by androgyny and gender role

reversal, which have led to claims that it is proto-feminist. Cherubino, a male
supporting part, is played by a woman. Although Cherubino is a teenage boy,
the femininity of the actress comes through in his actions: in Non so più (Act I),
he speaks of his physical attraction towards women that causes changes in his
body and mind. The tempo of the aria increases with his rapid heartbeat;
palpitations and flushing are reactions typically associated with females in the
throes of love. Cherubino sees himself as a 'troubadour,' referring to the love
poetry of the Renaissance. However, the sensual expressiveness of the aria
lends it a womanly quality rather than a masculine tone. Transvestism was also
used as a plot device in medieval literature such as Boccaccio's Decameron:
“The character is able to use his or her disguise to accomplish something
specific, but... when this is done, the character is able to return to his or her
previous identity (which [has not] been forgotten)... there is a "status" which
comes with gender in this society. When a male dresses as a female, he is

1 Catherine Clément, Opera, or the Undoing of Women (London: Virago, 1989) p. 5-11
2 Burton D. Fisher, Mozart's Così Fan Tutte (Boca Raton: Opera Journeys Publishing, 2005) p.
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'lowering' his status; when a female dresses as a male, she is 'raising' hers.”)3
This can be taken into consideration when examining Cherubino in Le Nozze di
Figaro: although the status of the actress could be raised by enacting the role,
those watching will realise her true standing. This also applies to the daring use
of disguise by the characters Rosina and Susanna to evade unwanted seduction
– although this can be viewed as liberating in that the women gain control over
their male pursuers, it is important to note that the audience remains aware of
reality. In Dove sono i bei momenti Rosina considers her situation rationally and
devises a solution, which counteracts her earlier hysteria at the prospect of
losing her husband's love:

Ah! Si almen la mia costanza

nel languire amando ognor
mi potasse una speranza
di cangiar l'ingrato cor...

- Le Nozze di Figaro, Act III

Although women are traditionally portrayed as erratic, sexually-driven beings,

Le Nozze di Figaro contains male characters who bear these traits, such as the
lustful Count Almaviva and jealous doctor, Bartolo. Both characters are shown
to be foolish and often emotionally unstable. At the end of the tale, the Count is
driven to apologise to his wife for his actions – something relatively unheard of
in contemporary society at the time of the opera's release. These personages
contradict the Enlightenment theory so prevalent during the eighteenth
century. However, there are flaws to Mozart's challenges: it must not be
overlooked that, although she is intelligent and sometimes calculating,
Susanna remains a sexual object to the Count, and a 'prize' for Figaro to
defend. Additionally, the elder Marcellina is a figure of ridicule as she lusts
unknowingly after her own son. With these aspects in mind but with the
knowledge that later operas do not continue the liberation of females, Le Nozze
di Figaro perhaps should be regarded as a tentative foray into this territory –
but not to a very large extent.

Although the eighteenth century was a period of great change for opera,
supposedly proto-feminist works like Mozart's Figaro did not lead to permanent
re-examination of the prevailing perspectives on gender – the “undoing of
women” alluded to by Clément therefore can be witnessed in subsequent
operatic releases of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During the Age of
Romanticism, plotlines in opera popularly involved 'rescue arias:' an oppressed
innocent being saved by a courageous hero. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
emphasises his views on womankind in La Cenerentola (1817) – enjoying
simple beauty over ostentatiousness (Act I – Sprezza il fasto e la beltà / E alla
fin sceglie per sé / L'innocenza e la bontà) and the virtues of a gentle, maternal
figure (Act II – A questo sen volate; / Figlia, sorella, amica / Tutto trovate in me /

3 Massimo Riva and Michael Papio, “Disguise and Gender-Role Reversal.” Decameron
Web, 2010

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[abbracciandole.]) Cenerentola is an emotional and fragile individual who often

sings of her frustrations, but her problems are solved when she marries Prince
Ramiro:

(Cenerentola) Non più mesta accanto al fuoco

Starò sola a gorgheggiar.
Ah fu un lampo, un sogno, un gioco
Il mio lungo palpitar..

(Coro) Cessa alfin di sospirar.

Di fortuna fosti il gioco:
Incomincia a giubilar.

- La Cenerentola, Act II

In accordance with what was considered a desirable model of femininity, the

prima donna ironically relies on a male member of the cast in order to feel
liberated.

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), another member of the bel canto triad that
epitomised the trends of early nineteenth-century opera, provides a similarly
dependent female lead in Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) with Lucy Ashton,
whose forbidden love for Edgar Ravenswood is claimed to be her ultimate
source of happiness:

Egli è luce ai giorni miei,

È conforto, è conforto al mio penar.
Quando rapito in estasi del più cocente ardore
Col favellar del core mi giura eterna fè.
Gli affanni miei dimentico
Gioja diviene il pianto.
Parmi che a lui d'accanto si schiuda il ciel per me.

– Lucia di Lammermoor, Act I

Although Lucia disregards the feud between the Ashton and Ravenswood
families for the sake of being with Edgardo, the opera does not fundamentally
grant her any sense of emancipation or empowerment. In Act III, Lucia sings
the infamous 'mad scene' aria, Il dolce suono, in which her madness has led
some feminist readings to declare it “a form of courageous protest”4 – but with
her delicate frame wracked physically by the terror of her hallucination,
Donizetti has lent no dignity to Lucia in her plight. Lucia's fantasies include
getting married to Edgardo and lovemaking, both of which are stereotypical
wants traditionally assigned to women (that is to say that to be female is to be
carnal, sexually fixated, and to yearn to 'belong' to a husband.) Lucia's memory
of Edgardo crushing the wedding ring is followed by a premonition of her own

4 Blackmer and Smith, En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera p. 86

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death: without her lover her life is considered meaningless, with the sole
possibility for her future being a fatal one. It is also implied that upon Edgardo's
suicide, her soul is finally made peaceful. Ultimately, Lucia's descent into
madness represents little more than “a distinctly feminised submission to
phallic potency” and “eroticised madness.”5

Giuseppe Verdi's (1813-1901) Rigoletto (1850) involves the occasional instance

of role reversal similar to that of Mozart's Figaro, but cannot be deemed as a
whole as respectful of feminist sensibilities. The protagonist is a lecherous
womaniser who claims that females are created purely for the pleasure of
mankind (La costoro avvenenza è qual dono / Di che il fato ne infiora la vita; /
S'oggi questa mi torna gradita / Forse un'altra doman lo sarà – Questa o quella,
Act I) but the lyrics are supposed to be ironic: the Duke describes women as
capricious and untrustworthy, but his words are quite evidently appropriate for
his own personality. In Cortigiani, vil razza donnata, his behaviour (weeping and
becoming seized by temper) is hysterical in a way that would normally be
ascribed to female characters. This possible androgyny can be heard clearly in
the high notes that frequent the aria, as well as the weak accompaniment of
simply one cello and an English horn that emphasises his exposure. However,
Clément explains that male characters with feminine qualities in opera “have
the status of Eve, as if they had lost their innate Adam... like heroines they are
surrounded by real men, veritable Adams who have cast them down. They
partake of femininity: excluded, marked by some initial strangeness, they are
doomed to their undoing... Their male stature may seem solid; but they each
have one disfiguring feature that makes them vulnerable and touching... for
Rigoletto it is his hump, his ugliness, and his daughter.”6 Female characters do
not escape gender-based operatic convention, either, as in the following scene
Gilda is shown to devote herself to Gualtier – although her infatuation has a
higher degree of innocence and sincerity than Rigoletto's unyielding lust.

Gualtier Maldè... nome di lui si amato,

Ti scolpisci nel core innamorato!...
E fin l'ultimo mio sospir,
Caro nome, tuo sarà.

– Rigoletto, Act I

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) shared views on the 'proper' role of females in

society with the Fascist Party, of which he became an honorary member in
1922.7 These opinions pervade many of his works, including La Bohème (1896)
and Madama Butterfly (1904.)
La Bohème illustrates Puccini's perception that womankind carries a kind of
duality, as Musetta and Mimì could not be more different from one another.
Clément even goes as far as to say she finds Musetta's character liberating.

5 Ibid. p. 308
6 Clément, Opera, or the Undoing of Women p. 118-119
7 Blackmer and Smith, En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera p. 279

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“Musetta is as lively as Mimì is sickly, as solid as the other is delicate, as

pigheaded as the other is sweet. She is one of the few women in all of Puccini's
works who does not die of dependence... She is queen. Musetta's waltz
avenges generations of women... (she) stands up for herself... (she) tries her
hand at freedom.”8

However, Musetta's role is merely a supportive one; it is Mimì, the main

character to whom the title La Bohème refers, who dominates the audience's
attention. In contrast to the assertive femme fatale Musetta, Mimì is a femme
fragile, as observed by Blackmer and Smith (“A good woman by definition was
'passive/weak.'”9) The woman as victim makes a common appearance in
Puccini's operas: in Madama Butterfly, the Japanese geisha is equally
submissive and unassuming as the humble Parisian seamstress. Her delicate
sensitivity is juxtaposed with Lieutenant Pinkerton's brash machismo in both
musicology and lyricism. It is not difficult to sense the phallic domination in
Butterfly, as in Act I Pinkerton even declares, “I hold you as you quiver. You are
mine!” Butterfly represents the Japanese people (Noi siamo gente avvenza /
Alle piccole cose / Umili e silenziose – Act I, accompanied by gentle, high-
pitched strains of harp, bells, xylophone and flute on a pentatonic scale) but
also the ideal of angelic femininity. In this way, the Orient is portrayed as a
female entity: naïve, exotic, beguiling and – most importantly – inferior.
Clément summarises Madama Butterfly as “Meiji Japan subjugated by the
whisky of an American naval officer.”10

As examined above through titles which span three centuries, opera fails to
deliver to womankind status or equal standing in society, despite the
occasional (and exceptional) instance in which gender roles are explored, or
even momentarily upturned – each hint of worthiness is promptly undermined
in some manner. The appreciation of beauty and virtue, however full of praise,
simply cannot be regarded as genuine respect. The medium of Italian opera
should be regarded critically by its audience as a reflection of the heavily
patriarchal civilisation in which it rose to prestige.

2080 words

Bibliography

Blackmer, C. E. and Smith, P. J., En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion,

Opera (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)

Clément, C., Opera, or the Undoing of Women (London: Virago, 1989)

Fisher, B. D., Mozart's Così Fan Tutte (Boca Raton: Opera Journeys Publishing,
2005)
8 Clément, Opera, or the Undoing of Women p. 86
9 Blackmer and Smith, En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera p. 82
10 Clément, Opera, or the Undoing of Women p. 107

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Riva, M. and Papio, M., “Disguise and Gender-Role Reversal.” Decameron

Web, 2010; accessed 25th April 2011
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/themes_motifs/ingegno/disguise.ph
p