'Strange to Imagine My Insignificant Figure Next to Him': Valentina Serova, Widowhood, and the Emancipation of Creativity

• In Event: Feminine Histories and Identities in Russian and Ukrainian Music

Abstract

Largely forgotten today, Valentina Serova (1846–1924) was the first woman to have an entire opera – Uriel Acosta (1885) – staged in Russia. The years immediately following the death of her husband, the composer Alexander Serov, saw Serova’s travelling abroad to enhance her compositional skills as well as visiting Russian villages. This paper evaluates the impact of widowhood – a common fate for many 19th-century women -- on musical creativity and productivity through the life and work of Valentina Serova.

Author

• Nicholas Ong, U of Cambridge (UK)