Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary Since 1900

Justin Vickers

ISBN 10: 0197780393 / ISBN 13: 9780197780398

Published by Oxford University Press Jun 2026, 2026

About this Item

Neuware - Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900 addresses a stark reality: Opera Studies has neglected its children. Opera scholarship has been complicit in othering children and childhoods, disregarding repertoire for, by, and about children as well as its creators. This volume tilts Opera Studies off its adult-centric axis by focusing on children as characters, creators, performers, and audiences. The gender biases that have plagued children's literature and its related study as inherently feminine and thus subordinate are also evident in the historical appraisal of children's operas and its imbalanced representation in scholarship. Similarly, Opera Studies has primarily focused on white, Eurocentric traditions from the Global North. This volume models an inclusive Opera Studies, exploring the myriad relationships between children, childhood, and opera to address two fundamental questions: 1. What functions do children serve for opera 2. What functions does opera serve for children These questions are answered primarily by bringing Opera Studies into dialogue with Childhood Studies, but numerous other fields are engaged throughout the volume such as Education, Ethnomusicology, Voice Studies, African American Studies, History, English and Comparative Literature, and Musicology. Editors Joy H. Calico and Justin Vickers, together with the roster of contributors, examine repertoire in a broad range of sociohistorical contexts, across four continents, to theorize a new line of inquiry for Opera Studies: the confluence of childhood and the operatic imaginary.

Seller Inventory # 9780197780398

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary Since 1900
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Jun 2026
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0197780393
• ISBN 13: 9780197780398
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 236W x 166H x 38D millimeters 236 millimeters width by 166 millimeters height by 38 millimeters depth
• Weight: 699 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900 addresses a stark reality: Opera Studies has neglected its children. Opera scholarship has been complicit in othering children and childhoods, disregarding repertoire for, by, and about children as well as its creators. This volume tilts Opera Studies off its adult-centric axis by focusing on children as characters, creators, performers, and audiences. The gender biases that have plagued children's literature and its related study as inherently feminine and thus subordinate are also evident in the historical appraisal of children's operas and its imbalanced representation in scholarship. Similarly, Opera Studies has primarily focused on white, Eurocentric traditions from the Global North. This volume models an inclusive Opera Studies, exploring the myriad relationships between children, childhood, and opera to address two fundamental questions:

1. What functions do children serve for opera?
2. What functions does opera serve for children?

These questions are answered primarily by bringing Opera Studies into dialogue with Childhood Studies, but numerous other fields are engaged throughout the volume such as Education, Ethnomusicology, Voice Studies, African American Studies, History, English and Comparative Literature, and Musicology.

Editors Joy H. Calico and Justin Vickers, together with the roster of contributors, examine repertoire in a broad range of sociohistorical contexts, across four continents, to theorize a new line of inquiry for Opera Studies: the confluence of childhood and the operatic imaginary.

About the Author

Joy H. Calico is Professor of Musicology and Chair of the Department of Musicology at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. Her scholarship focuses on the interdisciplinary study of Cold War cultural politics, Schoenberg, and opera since 1900. She is the author of two monographs, Arnold Schoenberg's 'A Survivor from Warsaw' in Postwar Europe (California, 2014; published in expanded Italian translation in 2023 and Russian translation in 2025) and Brecht at the Opera (California, 2008), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Calico is a member of the working team of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN), a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Musicological Society, and co-founder, with Daniel K. L. Chua, of the California Studies in Global Musicology book series.

Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music and Artist Teacher of Voice at Illinois State University. He co-edited and contributed to Elizabeth Maconchy in Context (Cambridge

University Press, 2026) with Lucy Walker; Benjamin Britten in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art (The Boydell Press, 2017), both with Vicki P. Stroeher. He was a 2020-2021 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom. He is currently writing The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948-1986 (The Boydell Press), and with Philip Reed he is editing Elizabeth Sweeting: The Best and Happiest Days (Bittern Press, 2026), the memoir of the first manager of the Aldeburgh Festival, alongside a series of her letters with Benjamin Britten, among other midcentury British projects.