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Cuban zarzuela : performing race and gender on Havana's lyric stage / Susan Thomas.
| Author/creator | Thomas, Susan, 1969- |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Urbana : University of Illinois Press, ©2009. |
| Description | ix, 250 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Cuban lyric theater in context -- Eminently feminine: the politics of gender and genre -- The mulata makes an entrance: the salidas of María la O, Cecilia Valdés, and Amalia Batista -- From the negrito to the negro trágico: the changing representation of black masculinity -- Ingenues and fallen women: representations of white femininity -- Ambivalent heroes and sensual peasants: the galán and the criollo. |
| Abstract | This book marks the first comprehensive study of the Cuban zarzuela, a Spanish-language light opera with spoken dialogue that originated in Spain but flourished in Havana during the early twentieth century. Created by musicians and managers to fill a growing demand for family entertainment, the zarzuela evidenced the emerging economic and cultural power of Cuba's white female bourgeoisie to influence the entertainment industry. The author explores zarzuela's function as a pedagogical tool, through which composers, librettists, and business managers hoped to control their troupes and audiences by presenting desirable and problematic images of both feminine and masculine identities. Zarzuela was, the author explains, "anti-feminist but pro-feminine, its plots focusing on female protagonists and its musical scores showcasing the female voice." Focusing on character types such as the mulata, the negrito, and the ingenue, the author uncovers the zarzuela's richly textured relationship to social constructs of race, class, and especially gender. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-236) and index. |
| LCCN | 2007046796 |
| ISBN | 9780252033315 (cloth : alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 0252033310 (cloth : alk. paper) |