‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’
The two volumes of Bernard Blackmantle’s 1826 The English Spy are part of a particular English ‘spying’ tradition, in which an observer’s eye is trained on the people and institutions of the London metropolis. Illustrated by Cruickshank, those institutions included the Opera House, more specifically...
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| Formato: | Journal article |
| Lenguaje: | English |
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2012
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| _version_ | 1826292047320973312 |
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| author | Burden, M |
| author_facet | Burden, M |
| author_sort | Burden, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The two volumes of Bernard Blackmantle’s 1826 The English Spy are part of a particular English ‘spying’ tradition, in which an observer’s eye is trained on the people and institutions of the London metropolis. Illustrated by Cruickshank, those institutions included the Opera House, more specifically, its Green Room, an image that includes ‘portraits of ten noble and distinguished patrons of the opera, with those certain daughters of Terpsichore’. The Green Rooms of London’s theatres, were not, of course, simply private spaces for the performers, but were visited by the public at all times of the day, and it was a long-standing custom for members of the audience to go behind the scenes, to walk on the stage, and to visit the green rooms in the breaks in the performances. The Opera House’s two Green Rooms were, however, not part of the original concept of the way London’s opera house functioned; they were introduced to satisfy the demands of the public, particularly those of the subscribers. And the subscribers who then visited the new Green Rooms were overwhelmingly male, just as those who were there to be visited were overwhelmingly female. But once the visitors were there, what then came within the purview of the male gaze? How was it constructed in myth and reality? In answering these questions, this paper examines London’s opera house Green Rooms as an intersection between the theatre, the dancers, the audience, and the musicians, and discusses the way in which informal visits of the audience became institutionalised through the new constructions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:08:41Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:b36e5b24-d5ba-4f76-b65c-17f7c137bcb5 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:08:41Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b36e5b24-d5ba-4f76-b65c-17f7c137bcb52022-03-27T04:18:59Z‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b36e5b24-d5ba-4f76-b65c-17f7c137bcb519th Century music18th Century musicOperaPerformanceEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2012Burden, MThe two volumes of Bernard Blackmantle’s 1826 The English Spy are part of a particular English ‘spying’ tradition, in which an observer’s eye is trained on the people and institutions of the London metropolis. Illustrated by Cruickshank, those institutions included the Opera House, more specifically, its Green Room, an image that includes ‘portraits of ten noble and distinguished patrons of the opera, with those certain daughters of Terpsichore’. The Green Rooms of London’s theatres, were not, of course, simply private spaces for the performers, but were visited by the public at all times of the day, and it was a long-standing custom for members of the audience to go behind the scenes, to walk on the stage, and to visit the green rooms in the breaks in the performances. The Opera House’s two Green Rooms were, however, not part of the original concept of the way London’s opera house functioned; they were introduced to satisfy the demands of the public, particularly those of the subscribers. And the subscribers who then visited the new Green Rooms were overwhelmingly male, just as those who were there to be visited were overwhelmingly female. But once the visitors were there, what then came within the purview of the male gaze? How was it constructed in myth and reality? In answering these questions, this paper examines London’s opera house Green Rooms as an intersection between the theatre, the dancers, the audience, and the musicians, and discusses the way in which informal visits of the audience became institutionalised through the new constructions. |
| spellingShingle | 19th Century music 18th Century music Opera Performance Burden, M ‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’ |
| title | ‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’ |
| title_full | ‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’ |
| title_fullStr | ‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’ |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’ |
| title_short | ‘Following the male gaze; Visiting the Green Room at London’s Opera House’ |
| title_sort | following the male gaze visiting the green room at london s opera house |
| topic | 19th Century music 18th Century music Opera Performance |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT burdenm followingthemalegazevisitingthegreenroomatlondonsoperahouse |