Renae Perry

Graduation Semester and Year

2019

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Music

Department

Music

First Advisor

Graham G Hunt

Second Advisor

Jordan Moore

Third Advisor

Soo Kim Hong

Fourth Advisor

George Chave

Abstract

Many music scholars have used the term “hysterical” to describe opera characters and arias. However, there are significant inconsistencies among the ways in which researchers deploy the term. In this thesis, the term “hysterical” refers to a female character’s untempered expression of negative emotions caused by some aspect of the patriarchal society in which she lived. The definition of “hysterical” used here is framed by both colloquial uses and feminist perspectives. Although scholars often label three of the four arias in this analysis as “rage arias,” this thesis applies the label “hysterical” because it effectively communicates the complexity of the misogynist social constructions through which these fictional women lived, as well as the significant textual, music-structural, and stylistic differences between these arias and “rage arias” sung by male characters. This thesis provides a brief history and definition of hysteria, a taxonomy of Musical Signifiers of Hysteria, and a textual, formal, and hermeneutic analysis of four hysterical arias from Mozart’s operas. This study revealed that there are striking stylistic and non-normative formal features shared among the hysterical arias of Elettra in Idomeneo, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, and Die Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte.

Keywords

Mozart, Opera, Hysteria, Dorabella, Queen of the Night, Die Königin der Nacht, Elettra, Electra, Idomeneo, Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte, Form, Musical form

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Music

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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