Desdemona’s changing voices: from the “Willow Song” to the “Canzona del Salice” by Chantal Schütz

“…The boy’s performance of Desdemona’s death left a lasting impression on early modern audiences, just as Barbary’s singing death did on the character of Desdemona – a detail which enables the dying Emilia to put a finishing touch on the mimetic process by comparing herself to Desdemona, and both of them to the swan, who only sings when she is about to die.The mimetic process was carried further in the 19th century, thanks to the operatic version written by Rossini in 1816. …”
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