ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the social and political ideologies that are explicit in the major gothic operatic adaptations of the most popular gothic novels of Britain, while at the same time examining British opera's very close connections with French models as well as French adaptations of British cultural works. The specter of the French Revolution hangs over each of the works, and all of them introduce middle-class characters who embody the best of what Britain and France must become if they are to avoid violent and chaotic fates. Loyalist gothics are structurally bound to depict an act of usurpation that is always corrected, often through the supernatural agency of a ghost. The chapter examines the cultural fluidity of the gothic as a genre and pointed to the increasing interaction between librettists, composers and artists of the two countries who "borrowed" ideas, ideologies, acting styles, and even scripts and libretti from each other.