Protection/Repression

Dahlhaus – Nineteenth century music/Realism in nineteenth century music

Plan
1. Introductory/Narrative of protection
o How do we see protection manifested in the operas – what were the beliefs about
family values in the 19th century?
o Family values/Patriarchy/Control/Maternal Absence
o Self protection & familial protection –
o Daland – self-interest of reward from the Dutchman, ignorance to Dutchman curse
o Rigoletto
2. Lack of maternal influence
o What was the relevancy of the Absent Mother in 19 th century opera? – toxic
masculinity that boils down to self-protection
o Verdi and his family, many operas that portray father-daughter
o Lack of maternal influence has created 3 fathers who are experiencing grief in 3
different, but similar ways. The overbearing father, the distant father and the
patriarchal father
3. Patriarchal affirmation
o Engendered systems of power
o ‘Un pere parle..’ – Mireille
4. Control and/or repression
o Rationality and excess
o Psychotherapeutic insights to Rigoletto and his grief
5. Distancing
 - Protection either represented through a familial protection or self-protection
- Paternal power embedded in social institutions
- Family values in 19th century

During the nineteenth-century father figures were placed at the centre of many operatic plots. At a
time where there was a developing climate of female independence (???), preserving the archetypal
father as the family head within cultural and artistic representations maintained a family structure
that was rooted in patriarchal reassurance. In an article discussing the relationship between fathers
ad daughters in psychosexual development, it is stated that ‘father’s attitude to women is of prime
importance’1 when allowing a daughter to develop a sense of self-identity and self-awareness.
Protection is either represented through a portrayal of family values and therefore a subsequent
desire to control those surrounding the father, or in a framework of self-interest and apathy towards
the daughter. Paternal and male power has long been embedded into social structures and this is
particularly apparent when looking at the relationships of these fathers and their daughters.
McClary’s view that ‘music does not just passively reflect society’ 2 is one of the central ideas that
provides a level of context to understanding that fathers’ attitudes. Instead, the music in these
operas serves as an opportunity to present these models of society and their constructions of gender
into a setting that they can be rigorously debates. 3 With the exception of Mireille, it could be
understood that both Senta and Gilda are represented with the need for protection. It could be
argued that due to the feminine weakness of the daughters, male characters deem it to be their duty
to protect the daughters, but it is perhaps this over-protection that correlates with their deaths.
Perhaps what prompts more interest is how much of the composers saw of themselves in these
fathers. Wagner in particular spent a ‘staggering amount of time and effort he invested in "self-
fashioning," attempting to construct places for himself and his operas in the forefront of nineteenth-
century musical culture’. 4 Peter Franklin suggests that it was Wagner’s intention to self-indulgently
represent himself as a powerful romantic artist, which is reflected through the character of The
Dutchman.5 How does this affect the representation of characters – Wagner’s family relationships?

- ‘ranging from teleological narratives or secular typologies of anticipation and fulfillment [sic]
to full-blown hermeneutic utopias premising artistic and cultural revolutions on a future that
is both inevitable and desired’6 – p.193
- ‘Daland’s intrusive banality’7 p.205
- ‘that is what catches them in a social system that is unable to tolerate their presence for fear
of repudiating itself’8 p.59 – relate to de Beauvoir’s concept of the Other
- ‘father of the family hammers out his stubborn intentions in solid phrases, and she defends
herself before him with sights that would move stones and break hearts’ 9 p.63
- ‘the father treats himself to the delicious luxury of pity’ 10 p.64

1
Williamson, Mary, ‘The importance of fathers in relation to their daughters' psychosexual development’,
Psychodynamic Practice, 10.2, (2004), 207-219, p.214.
2
McClary p.8.
3
Ibid.
4
Peter Franklin, ‘More Cases of Wagner’, Masculinity in Opera, ed. Phillip Purvis, (New York: Routledge,
2013), p.193.
5
Ibid. p.130
6
Franklin p.193.
7
Franklin p.205.
8
Clement p.59.
9
Clement p.63.
10
Clement p.64.
 - ‘every crime in opera is committed in its [love’s] name’ 11 p.65
-

The absent mother in these operas creates three fathers who are experiencing grief in three
different ways. The overbearing seen in Rigoletto’s character; the distant father in Daland; and the
patriarchal father in Maitre Ramon. Consequently, her absence becomes foreground to the plot and
character development. Furthermore, the attitudes to fatherhood and to women cause the
daughters to develop a warped view of the world around them. The psychological impact of an
absent mother is important to understand in order to further grasp the nuances of father-daughter
relationships. Mary Williamson suggests that a father-daughter relationship can only occur by the
permission that is granted by the mother, 12 therefore with mother only granting it by default, it
perhaps allows for a toxic admission of responsibility which the father is not always able to cope
with. This idea is reflected in Rigoletto as throughout the opera he struggles to cope with his own
guilt and grief of his dead wife and mother, subsequently seeking to protect Gilda in any means
necessary. Williamson also proposes that during childhood three needs must be met:
firstly to be mirrored by her parents, particularly her mother, as unique, special and a joy to them;
secondly the infant needs to be able to idealize a parent (Kohut specifies the father) who offers a
strong, calm and confident image that is protective and can be trusted; thirdly the child needs what
Kohut called ‘twinship’, that is the knowledge from their parents that they are like others 13

Using this model of psychoanalysis, it is possible to see parallels between the ideal necessities of a
child and that which is missing in the familial structure of these operas. As seen in Table 1, none of
the three daughters receive the optimum necessities for healthy psychological development. Ruth
Bienstock Anolik writes in her article, The Missing Mother, that the act of childbirth represents a
liberation from the female body and to be enclosed and confined by a father represents this absent
mother and perhaps the father’s unresolved guilt and grief. 14

Mirroring Idealisation ‘Twinship’

Gilda   
Senta   
Mireille   

- Absent mother in the 19th century allows a toxic masculinity that reduces down to a self-
protection
- Verdi and family
- Absent mother > father assumes child care > no older woman to look up to > subconsciously
guilty or resenting their mother’s absence > desire to repeat a pattern of absence from own
life? –‘lead her to internalize her father’s debased view of womanhood’ p.213 – The
Importance of Fathers
- ‘father’s attitude to women is of prime importance’ p.214
11
Clement p.65.
12
Williamson p.214.
13
Ibid p.213.
14
Ruth Bienstock Anolik, "The Missing Mother: The Meanings of Maternal Absence in the Gothic
Mode." Modern Language Studies 33, 1.2 (Autumn 2003), pp.24-43, p.31.
 - Her first love, usually the mother – here is subverted and therefore the father, she must turn
away from him at some point and develop the sexual longing. This cannot be done for Senta
and Gilda

Patriarchal reaffirmation

Control/Repression