"Opera and popular entertainment intersected at the turn of the twentieth century just as Americans debated the terms of citizenship. Kristen M. Turner disentangles the histories of race, class, gender, culture, and musical style to explain operas place in the mass culture of the ragtime era. Turner examines performances ranging from Florenz Ziegfelds early Follies to Black vaudeville shows to musical comedies, including everything from celebrity vehicles to obscure productions and overlooked artists. She reveals how operas popularity in mass culture illuminates the effects of exclusionary immigration policies, pervasive racial and ethnic inequalities, debates over womens suffrage, and the imposition of legalized segregation. Performers and creators from many communities-white immigrants, Jewish, Black, and Asian American-strategically deployed operatic allusions and the genres characteristic vocal timbre to assert their respectability, challenge stereotypes, and navigate oppressive social structures. Nuanced and expansive, The Operatic Kaleidoscope explores operas role when popular culture grappled with questions of race and citizenship"-- Provided by publisher.