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The Diva Dilemma a Comparative Analysis of Aging on the Operatic Stage

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The Diva Dilemma a Comparative Analysis of Aging on the Operatic Stage Master’s Thesis The Diva Dilemma A Comparative Analysis of Aging on the Operatic Stage Matthew Timmermans MCGILL UNIVERSITY The Diva Dilemma | 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction: Discovering Operatic Aging through a Shared History ............................................ 5 Chapter 1: Aging and Opera ......................................................................................................... 12 From Gerontology to Age Studies ............................................................................................ 12 Decline on the Stage .................................................................................................................. 13 Aging in Opera Performance..................................................................................................... 17 Time and the Singer’s Body ...................................................................................................... 21 The Real and the Represented Body ......................................................................................... 24 Age beyond Opera: The Vocal Persona .................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2: Embodying the Marschallin; How Opera Singers Portray Age .................................. 34 Der Rosenkavalier, an Opera about Aging ............................................................................... 34 The Representation of Age in Rosenkavalier ............................................................................ 36 Using the Fach System to Interpret Age ................................................................................... 42 Strauss and Age in Rosenkavalier ............................................................................................. 43 A More Dramatic Marschallin .................................................................................................. 51 Restoring the Marschallin’s Youth ........................................................................................... 63 Becoming Sophie, then Octavian, and Finally the Marschallin ................................................ 66 Inheriting the Marschallin ......................................................................................................... 76 Chapter 3: Timelessly Decaying Divas; An Analysis of Diva Reception and the Narrative of Achievement ................................................................................................................................. 80 Reinterpreting Age on the Stage ............................................................................................... 80 Transcending the Real Body ..................................................................................................... 83 The Diva .................................................................................................................................... 85 Nostalgia and the Diva .............................................................................................................. 89 Old Divas Growing into Young Roles ...................................................................................... 93 Chapter 4: Ageism and the Mediatisation of Opera...................................................................... 97 Ageism in Opera........................................................................................................................ 99 Opera in Film .......................................................................................................................... 102 Hybrid Forms of “Live” Performance ..................................................................................... 107 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 114 The Diva Dilemma | 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for its support of my project by rewarding me with a Canadian Graduate Fellowship. Their support assured me that these questions were worth pursuing and the grant enabled me to explore the full scope of this topic. Also, I wish to thank my supervisor Steven Huebner. Without his expertise and guidance this project would not have been possible. His unending patience gave me the tools to coherently craft my ideas. I also want to thank Rachelle Taylor, who supported me throughout the entirety of this project. She helped me to write my SSHRC proposal, and ceaselessly encouraged me while I wrote a thesis for the first time. Outside of academia, I would like to thank my private voice teacher and dear friend, Ingemar Korjus. Our discussions about vocal technique and the careers of many famous singers inspired the accessible and multi-disciplinary approach used in this thesis. Because these singers are referred to extensively in this work, I think it is fitting to recognize the influence a few of these performers had on me. I must thank Joan Sutherland, my first diva, and one of the biggest inspirations for this project. In addition to her, I would like to thank Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Christa Ludwig, my first Marschallin and Octavian. These interpreters shaped the way that I hear and understand Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. Despite their omittance, Leonie Rysanek and Maria Callas’ aging also had a great impact on this study. Lastly, I must thank Edita Gruberova one of the few sopranos I consider who is still performing. She and her fans’ devotion to opera have been an inspiration to me and a representation of this project’s importance. My friends and loved ones also supported me through this long process. Although it is not possible to completely express my gratitude here, I can begin by giving a special thanks to The Diva Dilemma | 4 Patrick Juskevicius for the endless hours he spent listening to my ideas and helping me with my writing. Despite knowing very little about opera, Michael Dascal also spent a great deal of time reading my work and helping me to express myself. Without these two, this thesis would certainly not exist in its completed form. Last but certainly not the least, I want to give a big thank you to Jaclyn Grossman, a fellow singer and friend with whom I do not feel as crazy when I talk about singers. The Diva Dilemma | 5 Introduction: Discovering Operatic Aging through a Shared History After seeing an opera, many seasoned spectators might think they never considered a performer’s age to impact his or her performance. Perhaps, because most opera singers are older than the characters they portray, audiences believe that an overt consciousness of the gap between a performer’s age and their character’s age would take away from the impact of the drama. Although we may decide to ignore it, this discrepancy between the real and the opera’s imagined world can be found in many of opera’s stereotypes. For example, consider “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.” Who is this fat lady? One could argue she is ageless because the expression emphasizes her size, rather than her age. However, it is not often that one sees an overweight sixteen-year-old on the operatic stage. No, the “fat” explicitly states that this famous lady is overweight, and the “ain’t over until” suggests that she ends the show with so much bravura that it climactically brings the curtain down. Her weight and ability to end the show also imply that she is an experienced performer. To obtain this experience, the “fat lady” is most likely older than the typically adolescent characters she portrays. We might take this analysis further by suggesting that this “fat lady” also wears a pair of horns on her head and introduces herself to the audience screaming “Ho jo to Ho!” Brünnhilde, one of opera’s most famous heroines, is typically played by a physically imposing larger and older woman. In Richard Wagner’s libretto for Der Ring des Nibelungen she is supposed to be a ripe virgin of sixteen years old. However, she is almost always played by a woman in her forties, if not her fifties. In the last opera, Götterdämmerung, Brünnhilde not only destroys the gods and burns the earth, but she also brings Wagner’s sixteen-hour epic to a close so iconic that one can not help but say, “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.” My point here is that one of the most famous stereotypes about opera not only denotes weight as a sign of prodigious talent, but also The Diva Dilemma | 6 that the singer who performs Brünnhilde is necessarily much older than the age dictated by the composer. This difference in age between the character and the performer is necessary because a singer needs to mature and hone her craft so that she can perform most operatic roles. If we consider the example of Brünnhilde, the performer is not expected to represent exactly the character’s looks or age because she would probably lack the necessary skill to surmount the challenges of the music and bring the opera to a grand finish. Similar to this brief example exploring the role of Brünnhilde, in this thesis I will demonstrate how age has impacted evaluations of operatic performance. The idea for this project came to me before I knew much about age or opera studies. Like many young singers at outset of his or her career, I chose a diva camp to adhere to. For me this was Joan Sutherland. I was introduced to her voice when I
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