Publications

The Opera Journal
Spring/Summer 2023: Vol. 56, no. 1, 1–22.

“The ‘Feminine Other’: Italian Opera, the Female Body, and the Society of Dilettanti in Mid-Eighteenth-Century London”

^{This essay explores the Society of Dilettanti’s penchant for connoisseurship, preoccupation with female bodies as erotic objects for observation and aesthetic pleasure, and inclination to promote Italian opera in eighteenth-century London. Analysis of Paolo Antonio Rolli’s libretto for Baldassare Galuppi’s Penelope (1741) examines the characterization of the titular character, highlighting the importance of Greek mythology and hierarchical gender roles to the society. Discussion of musical and performative elements, which synthesizes musicological and historical scholarship theorizing the female voice and body on the eighteenth-century theatrical stage, offers interpretations of aspects of gender and sexuality. Musicologist Thomas McGeary’s classification of Italian opera as “feminine Other” suggests the gendered genre itself may be situated at the apex of the society’s understanding of the feminine; but a critical perspective must also, as Nancy Armstrong argues, mirror eighteenth-century developments in the power dynamic of the male spectator gazing upon the female as spectacle. In addition to the way in which female roles were characterized and onstage female bodies were put on display, Italian opera—as a genre—fulfilled the function of female spectacle for the male spectator.} 

Hollywood Heroines: The Most Influential Women in Film History

Articles on Marilyn Bergman, Karen Baker Landers, Cecelia Hall, and Alexandra Patsavas

<sup>Unlike other anthologies, Hollywood Heroines: The Most Influential Women in Film History is a hybrid of film history and industry information with an exclusive focus on prominent women. This reference work includes more commonly discussed categories of important women in Hollywood film history, such as directors and actresses, and reaches beyond them to encompass women working as cinematographers, casting directors, studio heads, musical composers, and visual and special effects supervisors. 

The wide range of filmmaking crafts covered in the book provides an acute view of the industry and increases the visibility of and quality of representation for women working in Hollywood. By bringing the experience of these influential women to light, Hollywood Heroines joins a growing movement that endeavors to dismantle harmful, long-standing industry myths that perpetuate the systemic underrepresentation of women and the devaluation of women’s stories in the Hollywood film industry.</sup>