Musical women in England, 1870-1914

The most famous women musicians were the internationally renowned stars of opera; greatly admired despite their violations of the prescribed Victorian linking of female music-making with domesticity, the divas were often compared to the sirens of antiquity, their irresistible voices a source of moral danger to their male admirers. Their ambiguous social reception notwithstanding, the extraordinary ability and striking self-confidence of these singers - and of pioneering female soloists on the violin, long an instrument permitted only to men - inspired fiction writers to feature musician heroines and motivated unprecedented numbers of girls and women to pursue advanced musical study.

Women expressed both their musicianship and their claim to equality by performing in all-female ensembles and contributing their talents to the movement for female suffrage."—BOOK JACKET.