Deborah and her Sisters: How One Nineteenth-Century Melodrama and a Host of Celebrated Actresses Put Judaism on the World Stage

Kate Bateman originated the role of Leah, which became her signature part and made her a transatlantic star. Besides Daly's hit, Mosenthal's creation spawned many other offspring, including operas, films, burlesques, epic poems, popular songs published for home performance, and at least tw...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Victorian Studies 2019-06, Vol.61 (4), p.665-667
Main Author: Weltman, Sharon Aronofsky
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Actors
Audiences
Bernhardt, Sarah (1844-1923)
Drama
Hess, Jonathan
Jewish people
Judaic studies
Judaism
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1729-1781)
Nonfiction
Novels
Poetry
Sympathy
Theater
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Summary:Kate Bateman originated the role of Leah, which became her signature part and made her a transatlantic star. Besides Daly's hit, Mosenthal's creation spawned many other offspring, including operas, films, burlesques, epic poems, popular songs published for home performance, and at least two anonymous novels: Here Hess "explores how Jewish and non-Jewish audiences experienced Jewishness performed on stage-paradoxically-as theatrical and authentic at the same time," so that, although always contested, these actresses' theatrical Jewishness gained currency among both communities as a valid portrayal (24). Hess's volume is a must-read for those who work in nineteenth-century theater, performance, or especially Jewish Studies, but it also has much to offer a general Victorianist as a case study for the importance of theater in shaping ideas, effecting change, and challenging our settled contemporary notions of aesthetic merit by confronting what many Victorians themselves valued.
ISSN:0042-5222
1527-2052
DOI:10.2979/victorianstudies.61.4.11