The most-performed operas today were written at least a hundred years ago and carry some outdated and deeply problematic ideas. When performed uncritically, the misogyny, racism, and other ideologies ...present in many of these works clash with modern sensibilities. In Rape at the Opera, Margaret Cormier argues that production and performance are vital elements of opera, and that contemporary opera practitioners not only interpret but create operatic works when they put them onstage. Where some directors explicitly respond to contemporary dialogues about sexual violence, others utilize sexual violence as a surefire way to titillate, to shock, and to generate press for a new production. Drawing on archival footage as well as attendance at live events, Cormier analyzes productions of canonic operas from German, Italian, and French traditions from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, including Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, La forza del destino, Un ballo in maschera, Salome, and Turandot. In doing so, Cormier highlights the dynamism of twenty-first-century opera performance practice with regard to sexual violence, establishes methods to evaluate representations of sexual violence on the opera stage, and reframes the primary responsibility of opera critics and creators as being not to opera composers and librettists but to the public.
This article explores contemporary representations of wartime sexual violence on the operatic stage. Rape and the threat of rape loom over many operas in the canon, but even those operas that do not ...thematise rape may have sexual violence introduced to them in performance. Through analysis of four twenty-first century productions, I consider how the idea of sexual violence works in these wartime stories. Staging the implicit or explicit sexual violence in canonic operas can, in the best cases, allow for nuanced commentary on the subject in our cultural moment. But putting sexual violence on stage is controversial and can pose real risks to audience members. Instead of dismissing the proliferation of depictions of rape in wartime opera productions as mere scandalmongering, I explore specific representations through a feminist ethical framework, and ask: What do we risk and what might we gain by putting rape on stage in these operas?
Mozart’s 1782 Singspiel, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, presents an abundance of problems to modern interpreters. The libretto by Friedrich Bretzner, adapted by Gottlieb Stephanie, tells the story of ...the nobleman Belmonte’s heroic rescue of his lover, Konstanze, her maid, Blonde, and his servant, Pedrillo, from the Turkish seraglio of Bassa Selim and his henchman, Osmin. The constant threat of violence pervades all aspects of the story. Selim warns Konstanze that if she does not consent to love him, he will use force to compel her. Osmin, the Turkish buffo, describes in horrible detail all the ways he would like
Don Giovanni is a fraught subject in conversations about opera and sexual violence. On its surface, the story of Don Giovanni is very simple: Giovanni has sex with as many women as he can, even when ...they don’t want to, and he is punished for his misdeeds. Yet this opera has had a rich history of interpretation that has resisted its categorization as a simple morality tale. Don Giovanni has been at various times a hero of the Enlightenment, an embodiment of the will, and a cunning sexual predator. And the written text of Don Giovanni, especially the richness of
Rape in/as Warfare Cormier, Margaret
Rape at the Opera,
01/2024
Book Chapter
Sexual violence and war are inextricable in recorded human history. Raping the women of the enemy has been a mainstay of combat since antiquity and it persists despite increased scrutiny and ...legislation. It is not surprising that these dual atrocities, linked as they are in reality, often occur together in fictional representations of conflict as well. The opera canon is filled with wartime stories, especially in works from the nineteenth century. Great battles from history and myth offer opportunities for epic tragedies and tales of valor and showcase the pomp and spectacle of grand opera in massive choruses of soldiers
Salome as Victim Cormier, Margaret
Rape at the Opera,
01/2024
Book Chapter
When Salome demands that Herod deliver her the head of John the Baptist, Herod pleads with her to reconsider. He reminds her of how kind he has always been to her, bemoaning, “I have ever loved thee ...… It may be that I have loved thee too much.”¹ These words, coupled with his wife’s ongoing complaints that Herod looks at Salome too much, carry a menacing implication for the relationship between stepfather and stepdaughter in Oscar Wilde’s play. This sentiment has inspired a host of contemporary opera directors to interpret Richard Strauss’s operatic adaptation of Salome as a story about
