Eddie Is Totally The Diva

In Thursday’s class we discussed the role of women in opera and how they are perceived. The idea of the Diva, the extreme emotional range of women, and the labels that describe them with negative connotations ranging form submissive, hysterical, insane, shrewish, asexual, hypersexual, etc… Many of the operas we have studied in class thus far have promoted these stereotypes and/or labels to depict woman, as well as a woman’s submission to a male figure. However, William Bolcom’s, A View From A Bridge, seems to portray the characters Beatrice and Catherine as seemingly normal women who are trying to respond to a desperate situation in the only way they know how.

In class, the idea that Bea’s music was that of a slow simmer that burst into a hysterical explosion is accurate. However, I don’t think that we should jump the gun and coin her as crazy. I thought Bea’s reactions to her current situation were completely justified and rational. Seriously, ask yourself, how would you feel if your husband was pursuing your segregate daughter? Under the circumstances, I think Beatrice handled herself swimmingly! In fact, I thought Eddie’s character seemed to be synonymous to that of a “hysterical woman,” more than the actual female roles.

It would be interesting to further investigate the topic of how music, throughout history, illustrates male anger versus female anger. For instance, woman will sing extreme highs and lows deeming them insane, whereas men will shout and the range of the music will be more contained, which automatically means they are angry and not crazy. Despite these observations, I don’t think Bolcom’s use of these musical characteristics maintain old stereotypes. For instance, he gave Beatrice a “mad” aria, if you will, with an extreme range because she was reacting to an abnormal, horrible, perverse situation; not because she’s crazy. Honestly, I think most people can relate to Bea because she is dealing with a troubled relationship. Whether you view it as falling out of love, anger at a spouse or just miscommunication, we can all relate to her emotions on some level. On the other hand, Eddie is the one who is having impure thoughts and feeling, then acting upon them aggressively, which most people (hopefully) might not relate to. He fits the idea of the Diva because his character, I can only hope, is so far removed from reality that people want to get a glimpse of the dark side. So even though you, as an audience member, don’t want to be him, the shock factor of his story lures you in. It is through Eddie that we vicariously experience something foreign and extremely tumultuous, hence, the idea of the Diva.