Professor Eric Nicholson, who teaches Comedy in Italy from Ancient to Modern Times and Laughter and Passion: Italian and European Theatre 1500-1700, has published a chapter in the book Performing Girls and Women, Medieval to Early Modern and Beyond, edited by Deanne Williams and published by Amsterdam University Press.
His chapter, “You Know We’re No Good: Moll Cutpurse, Ophelia, and Her Musically Unruly Sisters,” appraises how the charismatic Italian-style female singing voice —even when emulated by an adolescent male in Shakespeare’s England—could release unruly theatrical energies, especially when linked to sexual intrigue and suggestive musical instrumentations.