The operatics of death: gender, the market, and the reform-era public sphere in the death of Angiolina Bosio

This article analyzes the development of a gendered culture of celebrity in nineteenth century Russia using the death of the opera singer Angiolina Bosio in 1859. Bosio was one of the leading celebrities of her era, and her death became a major social phenomenon. The article examines reactions to the singer’s death in the capital press to demonstrate that the figure of the celebrity female performer reflected major changes in the public sphere during the era of the Great Reforms. Reactions to Bosio show that female opera stars reflected the growing role of commercial forces in the public sphere and the anxiety about them from the point of view of many commentators. This article demonstrates that female celebrities reveal the dynamics of an expanding public sphere in Russia that was visible in the pages of the press. Bosio embodied both the ambiguous status of opera as both a popular and elite artistic genre, and a distinct emotional culture associated with opera. Her death shows the role of gender in the creation and dynamics of the role of celebrity in the textual public sphere. Analyzing reactions to Bosio’s death clearly demonstrates that gendered tropes and conventions from opera spread widely beyond the theater and influenced public life. Through the prism of her death, we can see the development of a public sphere in the which cultural boundaries blurred and European-wide operatic conventions became a model for public behavior.