Emily June Hagen, PhD

Cheaters never prosper… except, occasionally, in Baroque opera! This paper explores an aspect of my dissertation research that I found both comic and fascinating, but that received only a few paragraphs in my finished document.

In analyzing the compositional practices of Monteverdi, Cavalli, and their contemporaries, I realized that these pioneers of opera used certain musical techniques for characters expressing their true feelings, and others for characters who were lying.

My paper reveals the tiny ways that these composers conveyed more than just emotion through their music: they also revealed whether the emotion was true, and sometimes even implied their personal disapproval of the characters’ cheeky behavior! These observations in turn contribute to ongoing discussion about the surprising (or even confusing) moral standards of early Baroque opera.

Details:

“Non cercar più, la verità ti dico: Musical Depiction of Deceit in the Operas of Monteverdi and Cavalli”

6 April 2019

University of Texas at San Antonio 

Now in its fifth year, the St. Andrew Scenes Spectacular! music outreach program produces an annual performance of scenes from musical theater and opera. I am proud to be a co-founder and producer of this initiative, which offers free voice/acting performance training to participants from the church and community and provides our community with free, family-friendly access to high-quality art music.

In this year’s show, I joined a team of dedicated musicians to perform in scenes from Lakmé, The Greatest Showman, La bohème, The Music Man, and more.