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sai-national.org • WINTER 2016 • PAN PIPES 17 Eurydice certainly has a degree of autonomy, since she leaves Orpheus for Aristeus and chooses Bacchus at the end. However, everything that befalls her is the result of the male characters vying for her affections. Eurydice may object to her situation for the entire opera, but she has no power to change it. Depending on how the opera is staged and how the singers interpret it, Eurydice's powerlessness can be presented as part of the parody, pointing out her sad state in all the preceding operas. Or, this opera can be added to the long list in which Eurydice is subject to the wills of the men around her. How far has Eurydice come in four hundred years? e answer is not very. Her most powerful form was in Rossi's opera of 1647, considering she avenged her own death and had no need of Orpheus. Most of her changes since then have been a regression toward simplification. Her relationships have at least become more complex. Rather than rebuking the flirtations of Aristeus for a few weeks or months in Rossi's opera, she resisted Pluto's very real attempts at stripping off her clothing and taking advantage of her for four years in Krenek's opera of 1926. But perhaps that shows little more than increased graphic sexual content in 20th-century opera. By the 19th century, writers and philosophers had defined the concept of gender essentialism. e concept posits that men and women have contrasting core essences, regardless of environmental influences. For example, a man might be public, active, and worldly, while a woman would be private, passive, and domestic — his opposite. One of the many archetypes in gender essentialism is the "eternal feminine." Examples of so-called eternal females are evident throughout literary history. My research suggests that Eurydice also falls into this category. A variety of authors have written on the concept of the eternal feminine in the past few centuries. e 18th-19th-century writer Goethe thought women symbolized pure contemplation, contrasting with men's action. In most of my operatic examples, we see Eurydice contemplating her love and her fate yet making no effort to affect her own life. In the 19th century, women were oen portrayed as morally and spiritually good, responsible for drawing men upward. e original Greek myth and many of the operas portray Eurydice as a pure ideal who inspires Orpheus to greater music and stronger feeling. 19th-century philosopher Nietzsche studied Greek mythology and wrote about women's place in the continuity of life and death, because women traditionally are responsible for both childbirth and the care of the dead or dying. Certainly Eurydice spends most of her existence moving between life and death. 20th-century writer Simone de Beauvoir decried the eternal feminine as a patriarchal myth that excludes women from experiences and actions, relegating them to passivity. is complaint is similar to that of Amati-Camperi when she wrote about the silencing of Eurydice and her female comrades in the earliest operatic settings of the myth. If Eurydice fits the eternal feminine archetype, and if she "sets the standard for the feminine voice in opera," then females throughout opera may be constrained to the eternal feminine archetype. However, not all hope is lost for females in opera. Eurydice is not the only female character in operas on the Orpheus legend, and the eternal feminine is not the only female archetype in opera. e operas I studied include stronger female characters who contribute to the action, such as Speranza in the Monteverdi, Amor in the Gluck, and Daphne in the Birtwistle. In opera history, an archetype of female instigator appears, perhaps drawing on the standards set by these earlier females. Another development that contradicts Amati-Camperi's original assertion is that five of the fourteen operas I studied maintain Eurydice as at least a vocal, if not an active character in the underworld. ese are the Eurydices of Rossi, Gluck, Offenbach, Krenek, and Birtwistle. Librettists and composers need not be forever constrained by standards their predecessors set. If a female composer were to set the story, the results could be particularly interesting. We can only hope that other tragic operatic heroines receive such royal treatment in the underworld as Eurydice did. Madelaine Matej, soprano, is a senior Vocal Performance major at University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. She was initiated by the Eta Omega Chapter and is currently the Assistant Treasurer. WOMEN IN OPERA Atto III Scena Terza Empio, e pur vivi? E spiri ancor quest' aure Che tua colpa perdei? Tu desiare Di macchiar la mia fé, tu d'involarmi Al mio sposo! A perverso! Ecco ch'iovenni, Nuova Furia, d'Abisso a vendicarmi. Act III ird Scene Villain, and still you live? And you breathe still this air at (by) your fault I lost? You desired to mar my faithfulness, you to steal me from my husband! Ah, pervert! Look, I have come, New Fury, of Hell to avenge. Acte Premiere Scène Premièr Eurydice, elle cueille des fleurs et en fait une guirlande. La femme dont le cœur rêve N'a pas de sommeil; Chaque jour elle se lève Avec le soleil. Le matin de fleurs plus belles Les prés sont brodés: Mais ces fleurs, pour qui sont-elles ? Vous le demandez ? Pour qui ? N'en dites rien à mon mari, Car c'est pour le berger joli Qui loge ici. First Act First Scene Eurydice, she picks flowers and makes a garland. e woman whose heart dreams Does not have sleep; Every day she rises With the sun. e morning of flowers most beautiful e meadows are embroidered: But these flowers, for whom are they? You ask? For whom? Do not tell my husband, Because it is for the pretty shepherd Who lives here. TABLE 5 TABLE 6

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