While 18^th century French Baroque opera may seem passé, a Michigan State University musicologist is showing how the storylines within those works resonate in the 21^st century.

MSU College of Music Associate Professor Marcie Ray’s 2020 book Coquettes, Wives, and Widows: Gender Politics in French Baroque Opera and Theater (University of Rochester Press) examines how independent women were trivialized by composers and dramatists in popular entertainment in early modern France. Male authors, she contends, puzzled over unmarried women and the anti-traditionalist views they saw in contemporary writing by women. Their answer was to silence women’s voices by portraying unmarried women as disruptive to the social order, and characterizing independent-minded females as irrational, deceptive, vain and licentious. Operas depicted a woman’s end goal as marriage, and ridiculed and banished feminist characters who didn’t fall in line.

“I love French opera,” said Ray of MSU’s musicology/ethnomusicology area. “But the lessons learned from its study are still true today. For instance, we continue to demonize public figures like Meghan Markle, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, and draw attention to women’s every perceived flaw. We haven’t come very far in the idea that our social structure depends on the ideal woman whose preferred destination is marriage.”

Popular television series The Bachelor, Ray says, adeptly illustrates that contention of gender politics. The premise of the 25-year reality show is based on a single man selecting his future wife from a pool of female contestants. Each season, the bachelor eliminates women based on undesirable characteristics or encounters, and proposes to his ideal at the culmination.

“The Bachelor shows us who is marriageable and who isn’t,” she said. “The series loves to demonize women who they say are loud, aggressive or emotional. French opera did that too, through denigrating portraits of independent women.”

The path to gender politics

Ray came to the study of musicology after studying and performing professional opera. While she loved opera, she admitted she wasn’t suited for the performing life. Musicology combined everything she loved: music, history, languages and reading. Plus, she could recommence her study of opera.

Ray started laying out research and book ideas as a master’s and Ph.D. fellow at the University of California-Los Angeles. In 2009, she began teaching musicology at MSU, focused on examining the intersection of music with multiple issues including gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, religion and disability. She continued to formulate ideas for a book, but struggled with the angle. In need of editorial guidance, she turned to her faculty mentor, Michael Largey, MSU professor of musicology and renowned author and ethnomusicologist.

“Michael sensed exactly what I wanted to do,” said Ray. “Once I discovered what I really wanted my book to be about, my writing started to come from a more authentic place.”

Ray said one of her key goals was to author a book on gender roles and music that was accessible to a broad audience. She didn’t want her book to be stuck in a narrow portion of the musicology field, but rather be for anyone interested in gaining a cultural context for understanding women and their lives.

Largey concurred that Ray’s careful analysis of French Baroque opera through the lens of gender shows that women’s roles—both as musical subjects and creative artists—continue to define and constrain women.

“Dr. Ray’s work is an excellent example of scholarship that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging though a musical practice that has historically been ignored or devalued by historians,” he said. “She shares her expertise with students and guides them in their own writing to explore important social and political issues that are so critical for fully understanding today’s world.”

For more information and to purchase Coquettes, Wives and Widows: Gender Politics in French Baroque Opera and Theater is available for individual purchase from the publisher. Visit the Boydell and Brewer site for details.