El cuerpo cantante como configurador de la identidad de género: Una aproximación teórica par a el estudio del teatro lírico del setecientos hispánico

Resumen

This article proposes theoretical and conceptual tools to analyze the role of the singing body in shaping gender identities in the 18th century. In this period there is a shift from a baroque, fluid con-ception of the body in which men perform women, women perform men, and hybrid beings mythical heroes, to a modern conception laying the foundations for a supposedly naturalistic and realistic view of vocal ty-pologies associated with the female and male genders that will be con-solidated in the 1840s. These theoretical frameworks serve as the starting point to provide a first approach to the Hispanic case, especially in Madrid, from the perspective of the transition from a single-sex model to a two-sex model observed by Thomas Laqueur throughout the century. The article notes that these tools can help understand in a more contextualized way the vocal predominance of women on the Madrid stage, as well as the Span-ish reception of Metastasian dramma per musica and the overwhelming hegemony of the female singing body in the tonadilla.