Giuditta Pasta and the History of Musical Electrification
Giuditta Pasta and the History of Musical Electrification
Chapter 5 traces the theme of human plasticity into Italian aesthetic discourse and opera of the 1820s and 1830s. The echoes of the musical statues of the late Enlightenment can be heard in the reception of performers of Ottocento opera, especially the women. Figures like Maria Malibran and particularly Giuditta Pasta were construed as living statues or artificially animated interlopers from an ancient past. This quality of animatedness was described with a very new kind of imagery within music criticism, one that drew on well-known developments in the nascent scientific field later known as electrobiology.
Keywords: performance, opera, aesthetics, voice, archaeology, electrical science
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