Voci transgender. Appunti sull’identità di genere nella storia dell’opera lirica

Investigations into music history from the perspectives of gender and queer studies enable sound studies researchers not only to listen to the expression of female and queer alterity but to focus on the independence of sound from a visual angle. By considering the rise of transgender singers on U.S. opera stages, and the latest theoretical views on transvocality, this paper shows how gender and queer studies may give a non-binary reinterpretation of some specific figures in opera history (e.g. castrato singers) and may question not only male/female and heterosexual/homosexual dichotomies, but semantic/vocal and visual/sonic oppositions. Sound studies also add further elements to the complex field of opera history and its queer reinterpretation, because they make evident the sonic dimension of the materiality of the voice in opera singing.