From “Orfeo” to “Don Giovanni”, from “Carmen” and “Aida” to “Soldiers”: musical theater is full to the brim with women as victims of male despotism or open brutality. Either the ladies have to die or dare to fight against the lovers, their worshipers and oppressors. The 19th century romantically heightened and transfigured the tragedy of the feminine in opera. Or the gender conflict is relocated to the fairy tale world, where mermaids, undines, Melusines and “the little mermaid” suffer their terrible fate.
Dvorak’s opera “Rusalka” as a modern identity drama in Berlin. – Culture
