Opera Acts

Abstract

Opera Acts explores a wealth of new historical material about singers in the late nineteenth century and challenges the idea that this was a period of decline for the opera singer. In detailed case studies of four figures - the late Verdi baritone Victor Maurel; Bizet's first Carmen, Célestine Galli-Marié; Massenet's muse of the 1880s and '90s, Sibyl Sanderson; and the early Wagner star Jean de Reszke - Karen Henson argues that singers in the late nineteenth century continued to be important, but in ways that were not conventionally 'vocal'. Instead they enjoyed a freedom and creativity based on their ability to express text, act and communicate physically, and exploit the era's media. By these and other means, singers played a crucial role in the creation of opera up to the end of the nineteenth century.

Ideologies of Voice Type and Ravel's L'heure espagnole

“…Such a performer, Henson explains, excelled in bringing characters to life not merely through voice but also through 'gestures, movements, and bearing'. 71 In this cult of the interpreter, audiences expected great singers not just to sing their roles but also to 'interpret' them, to pick them up and to shape them, and through them to manifest their singular gifts. It was Périer's knack for doing just this that wowed those who witnessed him interpret Ramiro.…”