“I only wish I could draw it as fine as it was”: the Romanticization of Baby Doe and Violetta Valéry Jordyn Beranek, Student Researcher Dr. Mitra Sadeghpour, Faculty Mentor, Department of Music and Theatre Arts University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Abstract Elizabeth Doe Tabor Application The courtesan has been a subject of fascination for thousands Elizabeth Doe Tabor was born Elizabeth Bonduel For this project, I: of years. Even today, the courtesan is still portrayed in movies McCourt in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1854. Her parents • Analyzed the music of La Traviata like Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge . The most famous always emphasized her beauty. She married Harvey Doe and The Ballad of Baby Doe operatic courtesan is Violetta Valéry from Verdi’s La Traviata . on June 27, 1877 and then the two moved to Central City, • Selected three sections of the operas Operatic standard La Traviata , composed in 1853, has a Colorado, where he tried his hand at mining. Because her to compare: connection to a 20 th century American opera heroine, Baby husband could not make a living in mining, Elizabeth wore 1. First entrances of the characters. Doe, found in Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe . men’s overalls and worked next to him in the mines; that 2. First arias of the characters was when her moniker of “Baby” was created. In Colorado 3. Confrontation scenes in the operas A musical analysis of both La Traviata and The Ballad of Baby her life greatly changed: after divorcing her husband, she • Compiled biographical information Doe shows that: then moved to Leadville, Colorado, where she met and of Marie Duplessis and Elizabeth Doe 1. Both protagonists share similarities in the harmonic eventually married Horace Tabor. Elizabeth died an Tabor structure, as shown in their arias and confrontations impoverished old woman in a shack on the grounds of the • Compared the portrayals of Marie scenes. Matchless Mine. Duplessis and Elizabeth Doe Tabor as 2. Both characters were inspired by historical figures – Marie Violetta Valéry and Baby Doe in La Duplessis and Elizabeth “Baby” Doe Tabor inspired the Photograph of Elizabeth Doe Traviata and The Ballad of Baby Doe Tabor characters Violetta Valéry and Baby Doe. These women • Compared these portrayals with have been changed in their operatic portrayals. Marie Duplessis traits of the Romantic courtesan 3. These portrayals fit the role of the “Romantic courtesan,” a • Operas portray the 19 th century literary idea which presents a courtesan with Marie Duplessis was born as Alphonsine Plessis in characters in a redeeming qualities. 1824 near Lower Normandy. After her mother died, Traits of the sympathetic light she was placed in an apprenticeship to a • Companion to men, have blanchiesseuse (laundress) and eventually went to Romantic Courtesan, redeeming qualities live with some of her mother’s relatives in Paris. It was in Paris that she took charge of her own destiny, or “Hooker with a reinvented herself by changing her name, and became a celebrated courtesan. Alphonsine’s life inspired the heart of gold” novel La dame aux camélias , written by Alexandre • Beauty Dumas. Dumas had a love affair with Alphonsine for a • Audacity year, only breaking it off because he could not bear • Self-confidence the idea of her taking other lovers. Alphonsine died • Expensive taste of consumption at the age of 23, remaining eternally • Lightheartedness in the flower of her youth. • Suffers a tragic ending Violetta and Alfredo’s love theme in Violetta’s Act I aria, “E strano…ah fors’ è lui Romanticization …sempre libera” • Both Elizabeth Doe Tabor and Marie Duplessis were pious Miniature of Marie Duplessis Musical Similarities • Baby Doe has a firm moral compass, Compared arias and confrontation shown in Act I’s “Dearest Mama.” scenes Baby Doe does not want to pursue • Traditional 19 th century Baby Doe’s Act II Horace because he is married. • harmonic progression: tonality confrontation with Augusta Violetta is portrayed as virtuous in Act Tabor with additional notes for color III’s “Addio del passato.” She left • Parallel motion of keys/key Alfredo, whom she loves, for his changes family’s honor. • Baby Doe lacks the independence of Elizabeth Doe • Both characters are presented in Beginning of “Willow Song,” A painting of Marie Duplessis three note figures in important Baby Doe’s introductory aria Tabor, but is shrewd and cunning in the opera. at the theatre • dramatic points of the operas in Act I Violetta’s death of consumption is portrayed as • Shown in time beautiful and painless, and ends on a high Bb. signatures • Notes grouped in patterns of three Violetta’s confrontation within phrases with Germont in Act II Acknowledgments University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Programs 1935 portrait of Baby Doe Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program