Opera Acts

Opera Acts explores a wealth of new historical material about singers in the late nineteenth century and challenges the idea that this was a period of decline for the opera singer. In detailed case studies of four figures - the late Verdi baritone Victor Maurel; Bizet''s first Carmen Clestine Galli-Mari; Massenet''s muse of the 1880s and 1890s Sibyl Sanderson; and the early Wagner star Jean de Reszke - Karen Henson argues that singers in the late nineteenth century continued to be important but in ways that were not conventionally ''vocal''. Instead they enjoyed a freedom and creativity based on their ability to express text act and communicate physically and exploit the era''s media. By these and other means singers played a crucial role in the creation of opera up to the end of the nineteenth century.