Abstract:
The theme for this Master’s thesis is The Seven Ages of a Soprano. The theme evolved from a desire to explore and to analyse the experiences of a soprano as she traverses her professional career. The researcher is a singer working towards a career in music, and felt it relevant for researchers and performers to take a closer look at what a career for a singer involves to better prepare myself as I take the next step in my profession. Utilising the structure of Shakespeare’s concept of the Seven Ages of Man from As You Like It, this thesis charts a hypothetical career of a twenty-first-century soprano and compares it with an ideal type: the career of the German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, whose eventful and distinguished career is examined within the framework of the notional seven ages. Some of Schwarzkopf’s repertoire, particularly in Lieder, fits very well into this structure and forges another link between Schwarzkopf and Shakespeare’s Seven Ages concept.