Puccini's Women

This book explores the postmodernist aspects ofPuccini's operas and focuses on his femaleprotagonists-Mimì Musetta Tosca ButterflyTurandot and Liù. Combining a Schenkerian analysiswith dualism I present their complementary dialoguein my analysis. Mimì focuses on the subdominant topresent her futile attempts to escape from death. Thesubdominant in Musetta displays her attractiveness.Tosca concentrates on the submediant that presentsthe boundary of her world. Floria Tosca can do noharm to anyone. Yet the diva will act out throughthe device of deceptive motion killing Scarpia.Butterfly is both an insider and outsider in herlife. The Japanese Ying and Yang system portrays thatshe can never abandon her inherent Japanese identity.Turandot explores Western tonality as it isinterwoven with the Chinese pentatonic system anddemonstrates how Turnadot is possessed by Lo-u-Ling.Liù's sacrifice is prefigured throughpseudo-pentatonic writing. The book concludes with anexamination of Puccini's overall harmonic evolutionshowing how weakened hierarchic relationships in themusic of these six female characters allows exoticborrowings to be subsumed in a tonal framework.