On March 13th, the Davidson College Music Department presented a performance by the Davidson College Opera Workshop titled “Vive les Femmes!” in the Tyler-Tallman Hall, Sloan Music Center. The director, Amanda Sesler Davis, gave a few words before the performance, thanking everyone that was involved in the production of the opera. Davis’s introductory remarks also served to spotlight an impressive fact—the entirety of the cast, directing, and design team were female. Davidson College was not a co-educational institution until 1972. The entire-female team becomes significantly more impressive when put against this fact. “Vive les Femmes!” explores themes of romance, friendship, and youth as well as the celebration of the female gender; it is composed of a repertoire of songs from both well-known and overlooked operas sung in English, French, or Italian. The following songs were performed: (1) The Magic Flute, K. 620, Act I, Scene 1 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, (2) Climbing over rocky mountain (Pirates of Penzance) by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, (3) Poor wand’ring one (Pirates of Penzance) by Gilbert and Sullivan, (4) The Flower Duet (Lakmé) by Leo Delibes, (5) You Take The Blonde, I’ll Take The Brunette (Così fan tutte, K. 588) by Moazrt, (6) We’re the ladies of the chorus (Merry Widow) by Franz Léhar, (7) Chacun à son gout (Die Fledermaus) by Johann Strauss, and (8) Italian Street Song (Naughty Marietta) by Victor Herbert. 

The first song—The Magic Flute—introduces the theme of female friendship and loyalty. A strange prince is seen struggling against a large dragon by which he is saved by three women clothed in sparkly star-laden dresses. His handsome visage leads the three women to debate over who shall take him as hers. They eventually come to terms with the fact that they each value their companionship more than pursuing the handsome stranger. A flirtatious and competitive atmosphere is created by the bickering between the three women. Davis uses these scenes to combat gender stereotypes for women. Women struggling to stay on task because of a handsome man or women sacrificing their friendships over a man. She changes this narrative by having the characters agree to give up on the prince and continue their greater (and more important) journey. They are not reduced to working for these stereotypes. They are meant to be strong and brave for having saved the prince from the dragon—Davis refuses to let a man be their weakness. 

A woman’s mind solely revolving around a man is also depicted in You Take The Blonde, I’ll Take The Brunette. Yet again, two women are shown conversing (singing) over which man they would like to marry. It is in between these two male-female focused scenes that we get an understanding of what the director might be trying to portray. The Flower Duet and We’re the ladies of the chorus were composed entirely of female characters and focused on their companionship rather than a man-related issue. The songs are jovial and adventurous—this time the characters are indulging themselves in female camaraderie and celebration. The Flower Duet is about Lakme and Mallika taking comfort in one another’s presence as they pick flowers—they detach themselves from reality to simply exist peacefully with each other as reflected by their angelic voices. Additionally, We’re the ladies of the chorus exemplifies the coquettish nature and feminine power of its characters. The group of women are not particularly looking to seduce a man, they are having fun dancing together and encouraging each other. When not in discussion about men, the characters adorn gleeful expressions and dance much more exuberantly. Perhaps the director ordered the songs in such a way that would contrast how women are thought to interact with men versus with other women. 

I found the overarching narrative of the opera a bit confusing to string together though I was able to see how the director achieved her goal of honoring feminine excellence. It was a light-hearted performance with colorful and glamorous costumes. The buoyant appearance of the opera (in my mind) became contrasted with the undermining of a woman’s agency which I found similar (though less extreme) to what is seen in Euripedes’s Medea. The women display great valor and strength in defeating the dragon and defending the stranger. Similarly, Medea is a powerful demonstration of female resilience though this is limited to an emotional framework of revenge and fury placed onto her by the members of her society. In the end, the gods assist her in her mission that surpasses the sensibilities of mankind. The two works are examples of how women are expected (and stereotyped) to react and behave towards certain scenarios—they are constantly depicted as being emotionally driven. Yet as proven by Davis and Euripedes’s, female characters are always vessels for demonstrations of exceptional power even if they are frequently reduced to just their actions.