NONORMOPERA has investigated the representation of sexual and gender non-normativity in opera by gay composers between the end of the Second World War and the end of the 20th century. Non-normativity includes all sexual and gender identities that do not conform to heteronormativity, i.e. to the paradigm of heterosexuality assumed as norm. This hegemonic paradigm generates the binarism that stereotypically defines the male and female roles and, as a consequence, the perception of all identities that transgress it as deviant. Since the late 1970s musicology began to study the issues related to sexual and gender non-normativity in contemporary opera, showing that the operatic genre is a very productive field for analysis of social issues because of its impact on a broad audience. However, sexual and gender non-normativity in opera after the Second World War by gay composers remains relatively under-examined in comparison with opera from previous ages. NONORMOPERA aims to fill this gap in current musicological scholarship, by comparatively investigating operas by 20th-century gay authors of various ages, nationalities, educational backgrounds and musical styles.
NONORMOPERA is founded on the need to integrate the gender dimension into musicological research and to properly take into consideration the issues related to non-normative sexual and gender identities in approaching contemporary opera. Since music is a cultural phenomenon and gender influences the production of culture, a gay composer, whose homosexuality does not conform to heteronormativity, can feel the need to address issues related to sexual and gender diversity in his music. Opera is the ideal genre to achieve this goal, as its representational component permits authors to communicate more easily with the audience. Through operatic performance, they critique the gender stereotypes that result in discrimination and suggest alternative ways of relating to otherness. Bringing to light this political meaning, the project helps to demolish the walls of skepticism and resistance towards the integration of the gender dimension into the European musicological research and will show its relevance for the full understanding of a musical work.
The overall objective of this project is to shed light on the expressive strategies employed by gay composers to represent sexual and gender non-normativity in selected operas premiered between 1945 and the end of the 20th century. The overall objective is reached through the developing of three specific objectives (SO): 1) the SO1 is to relate the level of encoding of the queer meanings (from disguised to overt) to the self-perception of his non-normative identity by the author, on the one hand, and to the perception of sexual and gender non-normativity by the socio- historical context where the opera was composed, on the other hand; 2) the SO2 is to identify the aspects of the libretto that refer to sexual and gender non-normativity; 3) the SO3 is to identify the musical elements that contribute to the expression of sexual and gender non-normativity.
