Why read Female Singers on the French Stage, 1830-1848?

Book cover of Female Singers on the French Stage, 1830-1848

Book description

The study of singers' art has emerged as a prominent area of inquiry within musicology in recent years. Female Singers on the French Stage, 1830-1848 shifts the focus from the artwork onstage to the labour that went on behind the scenes. Through extensive analysis of primary source documents, Kimberly White…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Female Singers on the French Stage, 1830-1848 as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Hilary Poriss

Author

Through a dazzling collection of sources that include letters, contracts, memoirs, biographies, newspaper reviews, and fictional stories about the figure of the cantatrice, Kimberly White’s French Singers on the French Stage is a brilliant account of the various stages of singers’ lives in nineteenth-century France, beginning with their births and following them up to and past their retirements. In between, she describes their training at the Paris Conservatoire, debuts, marriages, benefits, and scores of other important issues that they grappled with throughout their careers. I do not know of any other work in the field of prima donna or opera…

From Hilary's list on nineteenth-century divas.