Undressing Cherubino: Reassessing Gender and Sexuality in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro Although Le nozze di Figaro is one of Mozart’s most celebrated operas, we have not yet understood one crucial element. On the surface of the drama, the opera seems to be about class disruption: the Count is the head of the household, but it is his servants who run it. This plot is made evident to the audience, and it is the message that most critics draw from the work. However, there may be a second meaning below the surface that is, in fact, more subversive than the overt one. While class structures are questioned in the foreground, another more hidden narrative explores alternate depictions of femininity and sexuality. This covert meaning is arguably embodied in Cherubino. This character is portrayed as an adolescent boy despite the fact that the role calls for a female singer. Cherubino is understood to be male, and functions as one in the drama, but, as I will suggest, may in fact be conceived as female. As a pagegirl raging with sexual love for all the women in the palace, Cherubino may be seen embodying a prototype of femininity that is contrary to the heterosexual norms of the overt narrative. The first chapter of this thesis examines how both Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais’ play Le mariage de Figaro and Mozart and Da Ponte’s operatic adaptation could point towards alternate depictions of women. The following two chapters survey the various ways an alternate gender identity for Cherubino can be expressed through features of the libretto (chapter 2) and the score (chapter 3). Drawing from my experience of performing Cherubino, the fourth and final chapter assesses the findings of the previous two and shows that while elements of the text and music may have characteristics that can be assigned gender attributes, neither can intrinsically embody masculinity or femininity. With this finding comes the understanding that who and what a character is is marked not by the outlines of libretto and score but by acts of musical performance.

Undressing Cherubino: Reassessing Gender and Sexuality in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro Although Le nozze di Figaro is one of Mozart’s most celebrated operas, we have not yet understood one crucial element. On the surface of the drama, the opera seems to be about class disruption: the Count is the head of the household, but it is his servants who run it. This plot is made evident to the audience, and it is the message that most critics draw from the work. However, there may be a second meaning below the surface that is, in fact, more subversive than the overt one. While class structures are questioned in the foreground, another more hidden narrative explores alternate depictions of femininity and sexuality. This covert meaning is arguably embodied in Cherubino. This character is portrayed as an adolescent boy despite the fact that the role calls for a female singer. Cherubino is understood to be male, and functions as one in the drama, but, as I will suggest, may in fact be conceived as female. As a pagegirl raging with sexual love for all the women in the palace, Cherubino may be seen embodying a prototype of femininity that is contrary to the heterosexual norms of the overt narrative. The first chapter of this thesis examines how both Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais’ play Le mariage de Figaro and Mozart and Da Ponte’s operatic adaptation could point towards alternate depictions of women. The following two chapters survey the various ways an alternate gender identity for Cherubino can be expressed through features of the libretto (chapter 2) and the score (chapter 3). Drawing from my experience of performing Cherubino, the fourth and final chapter assesses the findings of the previous two and shows that while elements of the text and music may have characteristics that can be assigned gender attributes, neither can intrinsically embody masculinity or femininity. With this finding comes the understanding that who and what a character is is marked not by the outlines of libretto and score but by acts of musical performance.

Undressing Cherubino: Reassessing Gender and Sexuality in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro Although Le nozze di Figaro is one of Mozart’s most celebrated operas, we have not yet understood one crucial element. On the surface of the drama, the opera seems to be about class disruption: the Count is the head of the household, but it is his servants who run it. This plot is made evident to the audience, and it is the message that most critics draw from the work. However, there may be a second meaning below the surface that is, in fact, more subversive than the overt one. While class structures are questioned in the foreground, another more hidden narrative explores alternate depictions of femininity and sexuality. This covert meaning is arguably embodied in Cherubino. This character is portrayed as an adolescent boy despite the fact that the role calls for a female singer. Cherubino is understood to be male, and functions as one in the drama, but, as I will suggest, may in fact be conceived as female. As a pagegirl raging with sexual love for all the women in the palace, Cherubino may be seen embodying a prototype of femininity that is contrary to the heterosexual norms of the overt narrative. The first chapter of this thesis examines how both Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais’ play Le mariage de Figaro and Mozart and Da Ponte’s operatic adaptation could point towards alternate depictions of women. The following two chapters survey the various ways an alternate gender identity for Cherubino can be expressed through features of the libretto (chapter 2) and the score (chapter 3). Drawing from my experience of performing Cherubino, the fourth and final chapter assesses the findings of the previous two and shows that while elements of the text and music may have characteristics that can be assigned gender attributes, neither can intrinsically embody masculinity or femininity. With this finding comes the understanding that who and what a character is is marked not by the outlines of libretto and score but by acts of musical performance.

abstract: W.A. Mozart was a masterful creator of music and drama as well as a keen observer of human relationships. Librettists were enamored of his ability to bring their words to life with his music. His truthful portrayal of human relationships, particularly involving women, was highly influenced by his own life experiences. Through these relationships he learned to create characters and music that clearly depict female sibling relationships in the eighteenth century. A review of educational opportunities for women during the eighteenth century, Mozart's personal relationships, as well as selected roles in his operas will help to explain Mozart's portrayal of the eighteenth-century female sibling stereotypes. While Mozart's self-centeredness is well documented in biographies by Cliff Eisen and Ruth Halliwell, and the argument can be made that he surrounded himself with females who fulfilled his needs, he was often drawn to operas in which he could advocate musically for a female character's liberation from the overbearing influence of powerful men. Although Mozart's "musically empowered" women appear in nearly every opera, for the purpose of this paper, I will focus on the characters of Così fan tutte's Fiordiligi and Dorabella, and Le Nozze di Figaro's Countess. First, however, a closer analysis of Mozart's early life and his relationships with his sister and mother is necessary. The ways Mozart set characters created by DaPonte and Beaumarchais cannot be separated from the ways he was taught to appreciate females in his family of origin. Social structure during the eighteenth century dictated a woman's education, responsibility to her family, and therefore, played a fundamental role in defining her life. This situation often created expectations within the birth order that had an impact on sibling relationships as well as individual personalities. Many social and familial influences are represented through the operas of Mozart. Così fan tutte (January 26, 1790) and Le Nozze di Figaro (May 1, 1786) both contain a central female sibling relationship that reflects aspects of Mozart's relationships with women throughout his life. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Performance 2010

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This dissertation investigates how W. A. Mozart applies the concept of key characteristics—the affective properties of each tonality—as discussed by three of his contemporaries, Johann Mattheson, C.F.D. Schubart and G.J. Vogler, to four soubrette and four prima donna characters from four of his late Italian operas: La Contessa and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro; Donna Anna and Zerlina in Don Giovanni; Fiordiligi and Despina in Così fan tutte; Vitellia and Servilia in La clemenza di Tito. The analytical method of this dissertation provides a hermeneutical tool to search for meanings in Mozart's music. The application compares the libretto text and its corresponding tonal center with the description of key characteristics on a micro level, to reveal significant dramatic and practical implications from Mozart's key usage in his operas.