The arts of the prima donna in the long nineteenth century

Cowgill, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9835-4039 and Poriss, Hilary, eds. 2012. The arts of the prima donna in the long nineteenth century. New York: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365870.001.0001

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Abstract

The female singers who graced the nineteenth-century operatic stage were among the most celebrated women of their era, but they were also among the most transgressive. This book explores the means by which this preeminence was negotiated, traversing the musical, the dramatic, and the visual, while addressing more recognizably modern concerns, such as career management, literary representation, and image manipulation. A key theme is the emergence of the diva archetype over the course of the century—a new ideological discourse through which the extremes of operatic female vocality were reinterpreted. Chapters approach the prima donna from the perspectives of cultural history, musicology, gender/sexuality studies, theater and literature studies, and critical theory.

Item Type:	Book - edited
Book Type:	Edited Book
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Music
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISBN:	9780195365870
Funders:	Liverpool Hope University, University of Leeds Worldwide Universities Network scheme, Northeastern University, American Musicological Society Plamenac Endowment (publication subvention), Music & Letters Trust
Projects:	Staging the Feminine: The Arts of the Prima Donna 1720-1920
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2026 15:32
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/16389

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