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
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Perry, Renae, "“Shame! Fury! Grief!”: Mozart’s “Hysterical” Arias" (2019). Music Theses. 7.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/music_theses/7
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington