My current read is "The Queen of the Night" by Alexander Chee, a novel about Lilliet Berne, an American orphan, who works in the circus to escape America, become a streetwalker then maid for Empress Eugenie, transforms into a courtesan and eventual star of the Paris opera world as a falcon soprano--yes, I know a plot as fantastical and convoluted as the operas of the mid 1800s.
Here is a link explaining what is a falcon soprano.
And here is the rarest of females hybrid voices--
absoluta soprana. If you can only listen to part of this, I suggest minutes 2:20 to 3:50 using Maria Callas to illustrate witchy contralto to coloratura soprano.
I am fascinated by the cover of this book, which is a photo of the real life Virginia Oldoini (1837–1899). The beautiful Countess da Castiglione was supposedly sent to Paris to seduce Emperor Napoleon III to support Italian unification. The Countess da Castiglione was fascinated with photography. She worked with the studio of Mayer & Pierson and other photographers in the mid 1800s to produce 700 photographs of her life and visions of herself.
"While many of the portraits record the countess’ triumphant moments in Parisian society, wearing the extravagant gowns and costumes in which she appeared at soirées and masked balls, in others she assumes roles drawn from the theater,
opera, literature, and her own imagination. Functioning as a means of self-advertisement as well as self-expression, they show the countess, by turns, as a mysterious seductress, a virginal innocent, and a charming coquette. Provided with titles of her own choosing, and often elaborately painted under her direction, these images were frequently sent to lovers and admirers as tokens of her favor. Unique in the annals of nineteenth-century photography, these works have been seen as
forerunners to the self-portrait photography of later artists such as Claude Cahun, Pierre Molinier, and Cindy Sherman.
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photos are from Met or Wikipedia.
No comments:
Post a Comment