Women’s images in G.F. Handel’s operas: gender types and their transformations
Authors: Yuan Xin 
Published: September 2023

Formulation of the problem. The article analyses the types of female images in G. F. Handel’s opera creative work through dramaturgical and gender aspects. Analytical attention is aimed at: 1) the typical images of heroines from the operas «Rinaldo» (Almirena), «Agrippina» (Poppaea); 2) the images that dramaturgically go beyond typicality (Armida from the opera «Rinaldo», Ginevra from the opera «Ariodante», Alcina, Agrippina, Rodelinda, Deidamia from the operas of the same name); 3) the existence of the «travestire» tradition in the composer’s creative work and in the modern space of interpretation. Analysis of recent research and publications. The study is based on the study of the vocal art of the Baroque era (Calella; Schaal; Budden; Dean); in particular in the aspect of the issue of gender (Robins; Andr&#233;; Degott), analysis of publications and reviews of opera performances of different years (Martin; Camuto; Thomas; Jones; Bohmer; Lang; Loney; Mudge). The purpose of the article is to analyse individual female images from the operas of G. F. Handel in the aspect of the existing typology and interpretation of the established gender types by modern performers. The scientific novelty is connected with the formulation of the parameters of gender-interpretative analysis (4 components: main affect, timbre-role, gender type and its interpretation in modern performing practice), as well as the introduction into scientific circulation of the pair of concepts travestire / vocal travestire and their approbation on the example of interpretations of female characters in G. F. Handel’s operas. The research methodology involves the modelling method (O. OganezovaGrygorenko’s idea of «timbre-role» as a constant component of the opera genre) and gender-interpretative analysis (Nikolaevska, Gigolaeva-Yurchenko). Within the latter, along with the concept of travestire, the concept of vocal travestire (essentially it is a «vocal disguise») is proposed as an author’s new vocal and stage characteristic of the countertenor’s role, based on the mismatch between the singer’s gender and the gender type of his/her voice. Results: 1) it is indicated that starting with the opera «Radamist» in 1720 and almost throughout his whole opera career, G. F. Handel almost always provided the presence of two equal female parts in the opera – soprano and contralto. At the same time, the division into prima donna and seconda donna is purely formal, while the quality of the music was always exquisite; 2) we have analysed the images and timbre-roles of the soprano on the example of Guinevere-Dalinda (opera «Ariodante»), Alcina, Armida, Agrippina, which made it possible to single out the processes of transformation of established typical roles and characters and to mark the path of their complication, which for Handel was always subordinate to the dramatic decision; 3) taking into account the fact that the role of travestire is the external plan of gender-theatrical substitution (a woman plays a man, a man plays a woman), and vocal travestire is the internal plan, an analysis of various performances of Poppea’s arias «Bel Piacere» (R. Fleming, C. Bartoli), and Almirena’s aria «Lascia ch’io pianga» from the opera «Rinaldo» (Marilyn Horn, Joyce DiDonato, M. Caballe, S. Yoncheva, P. Pettibon, Ph. Jarussky, D. Taylor, C. Bartoli) has been presented. Conclusions. In the сonclusions, it is stated that the typology of female images from G. F. Handel’s operas generally obeys the laws of the opera-seria, but G. F. Handel significantly expanded the horizons of typical characters and characters, because he focused on outstanding (and usually specific) performers. The given examples (images of Armida, Agrippina, Alcina) demonstrate the composer’s brilliant dramaturgical sense, which allowed him to make a revolution even within typical plots. According to the results of the gender-interpretative analysis, it has been established that despite the vocal and tessitura homogeneity of the presented compositions, different gender performance results were obtained, which differed from the gender of the performer. And this is no accident: feminine, masculine, androgynous features of performance are realized through genderperforming dramaturgy, combining gender characteristics of the composer’s text and individual reading of the content of the musical composition, embodied by the means of vocal performance.