Blog
12 Aug Princess Louise of the UK
Victorian is almost a substitute term for joylessly prudish to many people. They are wrong; Queen Victoria relished sex with her protective, affectionate husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha. The marital romance portrayed in The Young Victoria by Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend is true to history. However, Queen Victoria disliked pregnancy, babies, and some children, including several of her own, with passion. Her criticism of the less-favored could be stinging in its candor as well as inaccurate. Her sixth child, Princess Louise, born in 1848, was among her less-favored offspring. Through much of Princess Louise’s childhood, the queen sincerely believed that her daughter was “backward.” Having inherited Prince Albert’s cheekbones and graceful bearing, though, Louise was the prettiest of the daughters. Certainly she was the most talented and daring, the one who would lead the life she desired.
02 Aug Yoshiwara, the ‘pleasure quarter’ of the city of Edo
A couple of weeks ago I took a meander around the Met to see what new stuff was hanging--and what did I find? Lots of new courtesans! In particular, there is now a whole gallery of Japanese paintings of beautiful women--including a number of courtesans, such as this woman in a scroll from the 1780s by Isoda Koryusai. This painting seems to show the main street of the Yoshiwara, the 'pleasure quarter' of the city of Edo (modern Tokyo). A courtesan is promenading with her two assistants (or perhaps apprentices). She is the height of fashion, or perhaps overdone—as was apparently typical of these women—wearing multiple layers of elaborate kimonos, and the huge clogs which were typical of courtesans--clogs which made it impossible to walk naturally (a custom that reminds me of Chinese foot-binding).
19 Jul Izumo no Okuni
Izumo no Okuni did not find her fame in the elite pleasure houses of Kyoto, where women with elaborate artistic educations provided their clients with the most rarefied pleasures of fantasy-femininity and the most pragmatic pleasures of the flesh. Okuni was a miko, or shrine...
30 Jun Sammu Ramat Empress Regnant Assyria
In Rossini’s opera about her, Queen Semiramide of Assyria walks onstage right into a problem: The aristocratic politician who helped her poison her husband and usurp his throne wants her to fulfill her end of the bargain and nominate him to rule the nation. Payment due!
30 Jun Spanish Opera Singer Maria Malibran
Maria Malibran entered the world in 1808 with an uncommonly interesting backstory and set of genes. Her father, the famous tenor Manuel Garcia, was probably half-Romany; her Spanish mother was a more minor opera singer. Garcia was a spectacular singer, a brilliant teacher, and a manic brute. Determined to make his daughter into one of the planet’s most brilliant vocalists, he battered and terrorized her regularly in service to this aim. Did she start life with a miraculous voice? She had one by the time she made her debut at a London concert at 16, just old enough to be a sophomore in a postmodern American high school. By that time, she already had a range from E below middle C to high C. At 17, she made her operatic debut as Rosina in The Barber of Seville to great acclaim.
29 Jun Meet Nell Gwyn One Of History’s Most Famous Mistresses
Nell Gwynn was born Eleanor Gwynn in 1650, in London and lived a meteoric thirty-seven years. Her mother ran a brothel, where young Nell tended bar until she was fourteen. Then she began selling oranges at the Drury Lane Theatre. Influential attention began before long; the leading actor there, Charles Hart, took the impish nymphet as his mistress and arranged for her to appear as an actress. She probably made her debut at 15. Despite illiteracy, she developed her talents as a thespian, singer, and dancer; she became the theatre’s leading comedienne and fulfilled that role to high acclaim until 1669. During this interval, she also enjoyed a liaison with the sixth earl of Dorset.
24 May Elizabeth I Of Russia
Elizabeth I of Russia was born in 1709 to Tsar Peter I, whom we know as Peter the Great, and his plebeian consort, Martha Skavronskaya, before their marriage. She inherited her father’s large frame and dark, striking looks, also his charisma and ability to influence people. She grew up in Saint Petersburg in the splendor of her father’s court, amidst the exhilarating progress and strife of Tsar Peter’s fast-paced, radical reforms of Russian society.
04 May Marie Duplessis The Lady of the Camellias
Marie Duplessis (1824–1847) led a meteoric life. The girl who grew up to inspire The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas and Verdi’s La Traviata began life as no lady, with no camellias and little else. We know that her original name was Alphonsine Plessis and that she was born into an impoverished, violent household in Normandy.