Mary Ann Smart

Mary Ann Smart is a Professor in the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work centers on the social, political, and cultural dimensions of opera in nineteenth-century Europe, with a focus on gesture, performance, and historical reception.

• Research Interests: Social dimensions of opera, political opinion in operatic contexts, gender and sexuality, contemporary stagings, and madness in opera.
• Publications: Authored two seminal books—Mimomania: Music and Gesture (2004) and Waiting for Verdi (2018)—and co-edited volumes on gender in opera and musicological methodologies.
• Current Projects: A theoretical study of post-1970 opera production trends and an alternative history of French theories of voice and language in the twentieth century.
• Collaborations: Co-editor of the Opera Lab book series for the University of Chicago Press with David Levin.