How can contemporary opera contribute to the discussion on gender roles? The case of comic-strip opera Alpha

• In Event: Social and Cultural Impacts of Baltic Music

Abstract

What is the role of contemporary opera in the discourse on gender roles? To what extent is this issue significant in 21st century society? These inquiries are vividly exemplified by Alpha, a comic-strip opera from Lithuania, which merges opera and comics to depict a strong woman in a male-dominated world.

The women question in Lithuanian society has been debated for many years. Despite advancements in gender equality since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, contemporary studies demonstrate prevailing conservative attitudes supportive of traditional values and patriarchal ideals relating to gender roles. This is also demonstrated by Lithuania being amongst the few European Union countries yet to ratify the Istanbul Convention.

The issue of gender in operatic discourse became of particular interest to scholars in the last quarter of the 20th century, with the emergence of feminist opera studies. Scholars have become interested in the portrayal of women in traditional opera plots. This was particularly stimulated by the French philosopher Catherine Clement's book Opera, or the Undoing of Women. Clement claimed that opera is “the infinitely repetitive spectacle of a woman who dies, murdered”.

Using the comic-strip opera Alpha as an example, this paper explains which gender stereotypes in 21st-century Lithuania encourage artists to make gender an issue in their work, and how the image of a woman - a superheroine who has to overcome numerous obstacles not only on stage but also in everyday life - is constructed in the new operatic works.

Short Bio

Rasa Murauskaitė-Juškienė (*1992) is a musicologist and culture journalist who currently serves as a senior editor at LRT KLASIKA radio. She obtained a Master's in Music Theory and Criticism from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. She began her PhD studies at the University of Cambridge in October 2022 receiving the Next 100 scholarship for her doctoral research.

Murauskaitė-Juškienė has participated in prestigious international conferences across the United States, France, Latvia, Poland, Germany and Lithuania. Her publications have appeared in the various academic journals, as well she is a co-author of critical source edition of the Liber Organistarum Collegii Cronensis Societatis Jesu and the memoir Užrašai iš Rokantiškių. Since 2018, Murauskaitė-Juškienė has been lecturing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and Vilnius University.

Musicologist has published over 300 reviews and interviews on culture, produced radio programmes specifically centred on contemporary Lithuanian music, and actively contributes to projects run by the European Broadcasting Union. In addition, she co-founded the Women and the Arts in Eastern Europe research network. She is currently working on her PhD project that examines how sociopolitical changes are reflected in contemporary opera in the Baltic States and Ukraine since 1991.

Author

• Rasa Murauskaitė-Juškienė, University of Cambridge/Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre