Thanks to the personalities involved with the upcoming election, there’s been a lot of talk lately about our ingrained cultural biases about gender. And if you’re interested in historical perspectives, classical music is a great place to look for evidence about social attitudes that were prevalent in bygone times. Music of the Baroque is about to perform Handel’s Hercules, a fantastic music drama that is much more about Hercules wife, Dejanira, than the well-known hero. Without revealing too much, Dejanira—who seems a little unstable right from the beginning—becomes jealous of her husband’s connection to a beautiful prisoner, and ultimately sets off a rather unfortunate chain of events. When I was writing the program notes for the performances, I read an interesting article by David Ross Hurley entitled “Dejanira and the Physicians: Aspects of Hysteria in Handel’s Hercules” in which he discusses Dejanira’s psychological deterioration and the resemblances it bears to contemporary medical discussions of hysteria—which, of course, was considered to be the most common female malady. It’s a fascinating connection, and Handel’s musical characterization is completely riveting.
Anyone else have particularly striking examples of the way women are portrayed in music, classical or otherwise?
(Music of the Baroque is opening its 2008-09 season with Handel’s Hercules; performances take place Sunday, September 21 at 7:30 at First United Methodist Church in Evanston, and Monday, September 22 at 7:30 at the Harris Theater.)
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