An image of the book – The Soprano: A Cultural History

One hundred years after the birth of Maria Callas, this landmark history charts the cultural and musical evolution of the soprano, and the achievements of more than 500 of its greatest exponents, from the 16th century to the 21st.

Through extensive research and detailed musical analysis, Matthew Boyden traces the profound effects of social change, religion, philosophy, socio-economics, sexuality, race, technology and taste on the sound, techniques and perception of the soprano as a musical and cultural phenomenon.

Cross-referencing hundreds of works of music, literature, painting, and cinema – and with multi- disciplinary discussions of everything from the effect of the corset to the politics and aesthetics of body-imagery – The Soprano: A Cultural History is the first book of its kind to approach the subject from a multi-disciplinary and gendered perspective.

Boyden reveals how five centuries of cultural and societal experience across Europe and the United States have shaped the soprano voice; spanning opera, art music, theatre and popular song. it forms the second part of Boyden’s ground-breaking five-volume series on the cultural history of the sung voice.

Wildly original and ambitious, The Soprano: a Cultural History is a fascinating resource for anyone interested in the art, science and history of singing.

Maria Callas, one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century.

From readers of the book

“His erudition is at once bewildering and thrilling, but he uses it with skill, charm and wit... I now find myself listening to music with new ears."

AM, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

“I cannot remember reading a book from which I learned something important on every single page."

DK, LONDON

“Amazingly insightful and entertaining. I am not a musician but it makes me wish I was."

RM, TURIN

“I have been singing and teaching professionally for 28 years. This is the most original and knowledgeable book I have read on singing.

PL, PARIS

Maria Jeritza was a dramatic soprano, long associated with the Vienna State Opera (1912–1934 and 1950-1953) and the Metropolitan Opera.

The author

Matthew Boyden

Matthew Boyden is the author of nine acclaimed books on music, including The Tenor: A Cultural History, the best-selling Rough Guide to Opera, an award-winning biography of Richard Strauss (published in Britain, the United States, Hungary, France and Germany, where Die Welt awarded it Book of the Year), and Beethoven and the Gothic. He has written for numerous newspapers and music journals, and was Editor of CD Review. He was previously the amanuensis of the legendary British pianist, John Ogdon, and he is the producer and editor of more than 150 recordings, many of them recognised internationally by prizes and awards. He was the Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival of Words and Music and is the composer of twelve tediously derivative quartets. He is still working on an operatic setting of Boewulf, using the language as it survives in the Nowell Codex. He is consulting on the creation of a new music festival in Turin, of which he will be Artistic Director. At the same time, he is writing The Baritone: a Cultural History, for publication in 2025 (to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). Boyden is giving a number of talks on Maria Callas in Italy, Greece and the United States throughout 2023.

The Soprano

A Cultural History

Matthew Boyden

“Matthew Boyden's The Soprano: A Cultural History contains so many mind-boggling insights that I was already gasping after chapter one. This is the definitive book about the soprano, as voice and phenomenon."

“Finally, here’s a book that revives the history of the tenor in its proper context. Boyden’s cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary look at things is highly original. Dare-dazzling in scope, it still reads like a roller coaster."

One hundred years after the birth of Maria Callas, this landmark history charts the cultural and musical evolution of the soprano, and the achievements of more than 500 of its greatest exponents, from the 16th century to the 21st.

From readers of the book

“His erudition is at once bewildering and thrilling, but he uses it with skill, charm and wit... I now find myself listening to music with new ears."

“I cannot remember reading a book from which I learned something important on every single page."

“Amazingly insightful and entertaining. I am not a musician but it makes me wish I was."

“I have been singing and teaching professionally for 28 years. This is the most original and knowledgeable book I have read on singing.

The author

Matthew Boyden