Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900
Will be published approx. on 23. September 2026
Book
Hardback
424 pages
978-0-19-778039-8 (ISBN)
Description
Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900 addresses a stark reality: Opera Studies has neglected its children. Opera scholarship has been complicit in othering children and childhoods, disregarding repertoire for, by, and about children as well as its creators. This volume tilts Opera Studies off its adult-centric axis by focusing on children as characters, creators, performers, and audiences. The gender biases that have plagued children's literature and its related study as inherently feminine and thus subordinate are also evident in the historical appraisal of children's operas and its imbalanced representation in scholarship. Similarly, Opera Studies has primarily focused on white, Eurocentric traditions from the Global North. This volume models an inclusive Opera Studies, exploring the myriad relationships between children, childhood, and opera to address two fundamental questions:
1. What functions do children serve for opera?
2. What functions does opera serve for children?
These questions are answered primarily by bringing Opera Studies into dialogue with Childhood Studies, but numerous other fields are engaged throughout the volume such as Education, Ethnomusicology, Voice Studies, African American Studies, History, English and Comparative Literature, and Musicology.
Editors Joy H. Calico and Justin Vickers, together with the roster of contributors, examine repertoire in a broad range of sociohistorical contexts, across four continents, to theorize a new line of inquiry for Opera Studies: the confluence of childhood and the operatic imaginary.
1. What functions do children serve for opera?
2. What functions does opera serve for children?
These questions are answered primarily by bringing Opera Studies into dialogue with Childhood Studies, but numerous other fields are engaged throughout the volume such as Education, Ethnomusicology, Voice Studies, African American Studies, History, English and Comparative Literature, and Musicology.
Editors Joy H. Calico and Justin Vickers, together with the roster of contributors, examine repertoire in a broad range of sociohistorical contexts, across four continents, to theorize a new line of inquiry for Opera Studies: the confluence of childhood and the operatic imaginary.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 166 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
699 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-778039-8 (9780197780398)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Joy H. Calico is Professor of Musicology and Chair of the Department of Musicology at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. Her scholarship focuses on the interdisciplinary study of Cold War cultural politics, Schoenberg, and opera since 1900. She is the author of two monographs, Arnold Schoenberg's 'A Survivor from Warsaw' in Postwar Europe (California, 2014; published in expanded Italian translation in 2023 and Russian translation in 2025) and Brecht at the Opera (California, 2008), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Calico is a member of the working team of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN), a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Musicological Society, and co-founder, with Daniel K. L. Chua, of the California Studies in Global Musicology book series.
Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music and Artist Teacher of Voice at Illinois State University. He co-edited and contributed to Elizabeth Maconchy in Context (Cambridge
University Press, 2026) with Lucy Walker; Benjamin Britten in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art (The Boydell Press, 2017), both with Vicki P. Stroeher. He was a 2020-2021 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom. He is currently writing The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948-1986 (The Boydell Press), and with Philip Reed he is editing Elizabeth Sweeting: The Best and Happiest Days (Bittern Press, 2026), the memoir of the first manager of the Aldeburgh Festival, alongside a series of her letters with Benjamin Britten, among other midcentury British projects.
Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music and Artist Teacher of Voice at Illinois State University. He co-edited and contributed to Elizabeth Maconchy in Context (Cambridge
University Press, 2026) with Lucy Walker; Benjamin Britten in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art (The Boydell Press, 2017), both with Vicki P. Stroeher. He was a 2020-2021 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom. He is currently writing The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948-1986 (The Boydell Press), and with Philip Reed he is editing Elizabeth Sweeting: The Best and Happiest Days (Bittern Press, 2026), the memoir of the first manager of the Aldeburgh Festival, alongside a series of her letters with Benjamin Britten, among other midcentury British projects.
Editor
Professor of Musicology and Chair of the Department of MusicologyProfessor of Musicology and Chair of the Department of Musicology, University of California, Los Angeles
Distinguished Professor of Music and Artist Teacher of VoiceDistinguished Professor of Music and Artist Teacher of Voice, Illinois State University
Content
Chapter 1: Joy H. Calico and Justin Vickers: Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary Chapter 2: Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon: "What We Have Made of Them": The "Signifying Power" and Changing Dramatic Functions of Children in Opera for Adults Chapter 3: Isidora Miranda: Innocence and Empire: Children's Performance on the Lyrical Stages of Manila in the Early Twentieth Century Chapter 4: Nancy Yunhwa Rao: Children's Opera, New Culture Movement, and From Pixie to Nymph: The Grape Fairy MC5 (1922-23) Chapter 5: Teryl L. Dobbs: Tracing Brundibar, Dismantling Its Hopescape: Inception, Lehrstueck, and Difficult Knowledge Chapter 6: Justin Vickers: Entertainments, the Miraculous, and a Place of Refuge in Benjamin Britten's Children's Operas Chapter 7: Danielle Ward-Griffin: A Fantasy for All Ages: Lukas Foss's Griffelkin, Family Viewing, and Televised Opera in 1950s America Chapter 8: Anicia Chung Timberlake: "You Can Only Move Forward in New Shoes": Kurt Schwaen, Imagination, and the Future Chapter 9: Nicholas Jones: Operas and Music-Theater Works for Children "To Play and Sing": Peter Maxwell Davies on the Stage Chapter 10: Lena van der Hoven: Children as Bearers of South Africa's Future in Post-Apartheid Opera Chapter 11: Philip Rupprecht: Judith Weir and the Figure of the Orphan Chapter 12: Michal Grover-Friedlander: Opera's Silent Children Chapter 13: Colleen Renihan: Childhood Trauma and the Ethics of Dark Operatic Tourism Chapter 14: Laurel E. Zeiss: Bilingual Texts, Transnational Music: Intertextuality and Adaptation in Monkey See, Monkey Do and Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World Chapter 15: Allison R. Smith, Allison Michele Lewis, and Naomi Andre: Storytelling, Play, and Memory: The Roles of Black Children in Constructing Transatlantic Opera Epistemologies