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.
With a collection of essays that encompass repertoire since 1900 from four continents, editors Joy H. Calico and Justin Vickers propose a theory of childhood in Opera Studies, welcoming further critical enquiry into this next important scholarly territory: the confluence of childhood and the operatic imaginary.
