The interdisciplinary project ‘Women, Opera and the Public Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice’ (WoVen) brings together a research team dedicated to reimagining the links between women and European operatic culture in the eighteenth century.

WoVen explores the role of operatic women in the construction, representation, and reception of models for women in the eighteenth century. The project contextualizes the activities of female performers, composers, authors, theatre managers, patrons, and audience members within wider contemporary critical discourses about women’s education and place in society.

The project is organised in four main areas of inquiry: 1. Women's Roles and Images of Femininity on the Venetian Stage; 2. Performing Celebrity on the Venetian Stage; 3. Audiences, Patrons and Women's Participation in the Opera Business; 4. Performing Eighteenth-Century Operatic Women: A Practice-Based Approach.

While the project’s focus is on operatic women in eighteenth-century Venice, WoVen aims to go beyond microhistory and the national history of women in Italy to examine female role in the transnational literary and gender history of early modern Europe. By reconstructing careers, activities, and acting practices of female singers and their impact on opera production, and by shedding new light on how Italian opera was practiced and how it accompanied the life of women of the past, WoVen will enhance our understanding of Italian opera’s impact on the construction of gender roles and models over the long eighteenth century.