Susan McClary, of Arts and Sciences, talks about the trope of the tragic heroine and the status of opera during the pandemic

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The New York Times: Susan McClary, a professor of musicology in the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke about an established trope in opera of the tragic heroine who gets murdered on stage. Women had died in opera from the art form’s beginnings, but out of the audience’s view—until the 19th century, said McClary: “If a woman sings these high notes, and does all of this self-display, then, somehow or other, she’s going to have to be killed.”