Prima Donna

Adriana Ferrarese del Bene, the soprano for whom Mozart wrote the role of Fiordiligi in "CosÍ fan tutte", started her career as a celebrated prima donna seria in London, Florence, Milan, Trieste and Piacenza (1784-1788) before being hired as prima buffa at the Imperial opera in Vienna. Her undisputed success in the serious genre was counterbalanced by mixed reactions towards her comic talent. Nevertheless, she was one of Italy's most renowned prime Donne, especially when performing two-tempo Rondòs. The present paper tells the story of her Italian career in Rondòs, revealing surprising facts about her early as well as late years: While her early career was restricted by the machinations of her unforgiving father-in-law Consul del Bene, her late years were overshadowed by the conflict between the Italian republicans and the pro-Austrian forces in northern Italy. She imported Mozart's "Come scoglio" to Venice and "Così fan tutte" to Trieste, she was the first prima donna to wear the Italian tricolore in Reggio in January 1797, but finished her career singing pro-Austrian propaganda pieces in Bologna.

This article examines the historical constitution and construction of prima donna, probably the most intrinsic opera’s institution expanding from the end of the sixteenth century till today. Coming from the post-Renaissance courtesan to the professional artist of the Baroque and Classical era, from the bel canto madwoman to the modernist crying diva, from the helpless victim of traditional patriarchy to the powerful heroine of political emancipation, from the early-Romanticist alpine virgin to the late-Romanticist national siren, from the early-twentieth century recording angel to the mid-twentieth-century prima donna assoluta, from the post-war goddess to the late-twentieth century global media star, from the vernacular songstress of socialistic local peripheries to the post-socialist foreign favourite and migrating queen (here with special focus on the cultural production of prima donna in Slovenia), and from the late-capitalistic singing commodity to the post-national diva, the opera’s prima donna has experienced numerous cultural transformations and commodifications. Her idea was determined by paradigms and concepts of absence and replaceability in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of human nature and body, sexuality and gender, character and costume in the eighteenth century, of aura and fetish in the nineteenth century, and of identity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To conclude, even though she has lost a lot of past mystique, grandomania and phantasmagoria, her institution continues to rule the opera’s world.

The first half of the 19th Century was a period of change in the operatic world. It manifested itself in the art of composing, the singing and acting technique, the theatre practice, as well as the audience itself and their expectations. It was also a period, where the female singer moved into the centre of attention, gaining that way a remarkable power over the whole theatre practice of that time, and influencing not only the way of composing, but also the acting on stage and the process of whole opera productions. In this research lecture an important role will play the theatre practice of the first half of the 19th Century, as well as the challenges the female singers had to face during that time, which included being their own stage director, costume designer and make-up artist.
Further, in a more detailed way, will be introduced the style of Bel Canto, which was an essential part of the musical education, and the outstanding performing skills of the two most famous singers of that time - Guiditta Pasta and Maria Malibran. In addition to that, Sofia will show the results of her documentation about challenging her own performance by being her own stage director and staging an opera scene in the style of the historical acting.

L’ouvrage dirigé par Jean Mongrédien – Le Théâtre-Italien de Paris. 1801-1831 – et le site internet qui l’accompagne permettent de mener des recherches sur les mots utilisés dans les périodiques du début du XIXe siècle pour rendre compte de l’activité de cette institution lyrique parisienne. Une recherche « sédu* » donne pour résultats 424 occurrences de mots commençant par ces quatre lettres (séducteur, séductrice, séduire, séduite, séduisant…). On s’intéressera à l’usage global qui est fait de ces termes dans le corpus réuni par Jean Mongrédien (fréquence, définition des termes et des objets qu’ils qualifient) avant d’aborder trois thèmes majeurs qui apparaissent au cours de leur analyse : la place de la séduction dans les livrets des œuvres jouées au Théâtre-Italien ; la séduction des interprètes ; et celle opérée par la musique.

The volume edited by Jean Mongrédien, Le Théâtre-Italien de Paris. 1801-1831, and the website which accompanies it, make it possible to search for words used in periodicals which recounted the goings-on of this theater in the early 19th century. A search for “sedu*” results in 424 hits of words beginning with these four letters (seducer, seduce, seduced, seductive...). The present article looks at the overall use of these terms in the body of work collected by Jean Mongrédien (their frequency, definition of the terms and the objects they qualify), followed by an investigation of three major themes that emerge from this analysis: seduction’s role in the printed programs of the works played at the Théâtre-Italien, the musicians’ seduction, and that of the music.

"Creso in Media" was Joseph Schuster's second opera for Naples and the most successful opera seria at the Teatro San Carlo in the years around 1780. This paper analyzes the reasons for its extraordinary success: firstly the libretto by Giuseppe Pagliuca, which counted for a turning point in Neapolitan dramma per musica; secondly Schuster's wonderfully rich and contrasting music, which in an almost Mozartian way manages to characterize the protagonists in their complex conflicts, while providing for a second, much lighter level of musical expression in the small arias; thirdly the singers in their impressive variety of musical means, ranging from stunning coloratura to a deeply moving cantabile; and finally the stage designs by the Sicilian architect Francesco Sicuro. The acclaim of Schuster's score was ultimately enhanced by prominent visitors who saw the opera in Naples as well as in Livorno: the "Arciduchi di Milano", Ferdinand of Habsburg and Maria Beatrice d'Este. Ferdinand's musical taste had an immediate impact on the second version of "Creso in Media", performed in Livorno in May 1780.

ABSTRACT
Shannon Wong Lerner: The Diva in the Garden: Operatic Voice, Sexuate Difference, and Pastoralism, 1850—1923
(Under the direction of Christian Lundberg)
This dissertation explores the operatic diva in American public culture focusing on the period of 1850—1923. As women, divas had to balance their success with the image of the wife, the mother, and the woman as connected to nature. The core questions for this study are twofold. 1. How are representations of the diva as woman mediated by representations of women being closer to nature? 2. How do these representations figure in the diva’s access to culture, and by extension, what do these representations say about the place of women in relationship to culture and technology? To answer these questions, I take up representations of the diva in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America, tracking the ways that the persona of the diva is articulated within a popular cultural movement of their era, pastoralism. Engaging pastoral symbols of the wilderness, the garden, and the machine, divas negotiated women’s sentimental relegation to nature as a means of navigating modern discourses as regarding working women as successful individuals. Divas first occupied pastoral aesthetic themes as the sublime as the awe people felt in natural spaces through the beauty of the divas’ voices. But as the diva’s place in public culture evolved, the diva transitioned from the natural sublime to the technological sublime by highlighting the artifice in contemporary vocal technique. This transition paradoxically refigured the diva into a simultaneous object of natural bliss and technological horror. The technological sublime created space for divas to move away from the sacrifice and self-destruction of a Romantic narrative about prima donnas, to instead turn to a sexuated, singularly-pleasured focus on divas’ well-being and self-care. To make this case, I will take up three case studies which transition divas from the natural sublime to the technological sublime: Jenny Lind, Adelina Patti, and Geraldine Farrar.

The Prima Dona is infamous in history for her dramatic performances and fiery spirit. This paper examines how the prima donna earned her stake in opera history and transformed expectations for leading sopranos everywhere. Not only does this paper discuss her legacy, but it also examines her humble origins in the late seventeenth-century. Thanks to her adoring public and perseverance, her star will never die.