ABSTRACT Male opera singers occupied a problematic place in nineteenth-century Britain, where music was often perceived as a feminized and foreign pursuit, and not a respectable profession. It therefore became imperative for British singers to find ways in which to assert their masculinity, their Britishness, and their respectability. The autobiography offered them an ideal opportunity. The British tenor Sims Reeves (1821–1900) left two memoires, the first of which is especially unusual. While some sections of the volume conform to a conventional autobiographical style, the majority of its chapters could more accurately be defined as gothic fiction, containing a number of sensational short stories that are mostly set in the world of music. These stories function as an attempt to negotiate their author’s problematic identity. While some offer a coded defense against contemporary accusations of greed and alcoholism, others present opera as a respectable profession.

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歌剧歌手的哥特小说：西姆斯·里夫斯的自传

摘要 在 19 世纪的英国，男歌剧歌手占据了一个有问题的地方，在那里音乐通常被视为一种女性化和外国的追求，而不是一个受人尊敬的职业。因此，英国歌手必须找到方法来维护他们的男子气概、英国性和受人尊敬。自传为他们提供了一个理想的机会。英国男高音西姆斯·里夫斯 (1821–1900) 留下了两本回忆录，其中第一本特别不寻常。虽然该卷的某些部分符合传统的自传体风格，但其大部分章节可以更准确地定义为哥特式小说，其中包含许多耸人听闻的短篇小说，主要以音乐世界为背景。这些故事的作用是试图协商作者有问题的身份。