Accessibility and Authenticity in Julia Smith's Cynthia Parker
Description:
In 1939, composer Julia Smith's first opera Cynthia Parker dramatized the story of a Texas legend. Smith manipulated music, text, and visual images to make the opera accessible for the audience in accordance with compositional and institutional practices in American opera of the 1930s. Transparent musical themes and common Native Americans stereotypes are used to define characters. Folk music is presented as diegetic, creating a sense of authenticity that places the audience into the opera's We…
more
Date:
December 2007
Creator:
Buehner, Katie R.
Partner:
UNT Libraries