Sixteenth century Elizabeth I of England has long been a figure of interest to Renaissance scholars, and their work largely focuses on how her gender impacted the power, politics, and culture of her day. Many have perceived her to be a heroine whose ingenuity and determination circumvented the limitations imposed on a female ruler in patriarchal Renaissance England. In my thesis, I examine the life and work of Elizabeth I, and the self-representations she constructed within the boundaries imposed on highborn women. In the first half of my thesis, I suggest that she embraced and utilized the female roles available to her to secure agency and a degree of safety for both herself and England. In the second half, I suggest that masculine subjects such as Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser, in turn, sought to manipulate her later self-representations to negotiate their own agency and identity which was perceived to be beset with anxieties and biases stemming from the ageing Queen's seizure and redefinition of the female gender role allotted to her. A chronological examination of the self representations evident in her personal writing, commissioned portraiture, parliamentary speeches, and sonnets, as well as the poetry of two of her foremost masculine subjects, suggests a shift in gender politics and a tension roused by an ageing Queen regnant in a rigidly patriarchal society. / Graduation date: 2012

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The purpose of this research is to analyze representations of Queen Elizabeth I of England in nineteenth-century Franco-Italian opera, and the relationship of these representations to contemporaneous singing style and the historical background. The basis for this analysis is three arias: "Quant'é grato all'alma mia" from Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (1815) by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), "Sì, vuol di Francia il rege...Ah! quando all'ara scorgemi...Ah! dal ciel discenda un raggio" from Maria Stuarda (1835) by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), and "Malgré l'éclat qui m'environne" from Le songe d'une nuit d'été (1850) by Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896). This research is divided into two main sections: the historical background of Italy and France in the nineteenth century, especially in the contemporaneous vocal style and fashions of literature; and a discussion of the composers' musical and dramatic choices for Queen Elizabeth I in the three selected arias. Chapter 2 is a brief introduction to the early nineteenth-century Franco-Italian historical background, vocal style, and popular literature. Chapter 3 presents an analysis of the three arias. The last chapter summarizes the representations of Elizabeth I in nineteenth-century politics, literature, and vocal style.