Flipping the Script: A Celebration of Opera Arias and Art Songs About Women Who Thrive

In the overwrought, dramatic world of Western opera, one of the most common tropes is that the leading lady dies by the end of the story. These tragic narratives (often) operate as social commentary, shedding light on corruption and injustice, thereby playing important roles in cultural discourse. After a while, though, the trope gets old. Can’t a soprano make it through a performance without having to fake-die? In this lecture-recital, Melanie flips the script on operatic stereotypes, featuring songs and arias about women who thrive by virtue of their intelligence, interdependence, sense of justice and deep sense of love.

*Please note the venue change.

Melanie Hiepler is a soprano (she sings really high) from Surrey, BC (she’s local), and is in the last semester of her Master’s in Music in UBC’s Opera Program (soon she’ll have to start paying off student loans). Melanie also holds a BA Honours in World Literature from Simon Fraser University, and is interested in the intersection of music and literature as modes of storytelling and transmitting knowledge. Recent performances include Cendrillon (Dorothée), The Cunning Little Vixen (Rooster, Owl, Cricket) and Joseph Canteloube’s Chantes d’Auvergne (First Series).