Opera as Sexualwissenschaft: sexology, the ‘third sex’, and the intermediary voice in Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Der Rosenkavalier (1911) and Ariadne auf Naxos (1916)

This thesis argues that, in reading Octavian and The Composer as operatic manifestations of the sexuelle Zwischenstufen, we can observe how Strauss and Hofmannsthal extended sexological understandings of the ‘third sex’ by challenging the rigid sexological triangulation of voice, body, and gender in Zwischenstufen individuals. This thesis articulates the dynamism of Sexualwissenschaft discourse by constructing varied readings of both Octavian and The Composer as operatic Zwischenstufen. Ultimately, this thesis considers opera a potent and powerful form of Wilhelmine Sexualwissenschaft due to the history of gender flexibility associated with the artform, and the powerful gender-performative capabilities of the operatic voice.