The book highlights the network of kinship, economic and cultural links and relationships between women, music and history in Milan in the 19th century. Enriching the picture is the conception of the Conservatorio and its opening (1803-1808). Protagonists are women, on the stage of La Scala theatre and in the city's political and cultural life: dancers who become stagehands, singers who star in La Scala premieres, harpists, the only representatives 'of the fair sex' in the theatre orchestra. The male preventive censorship confines them to a restricted environment, from which it is difficult to escape; there are many stereotypes surrounding them, such as the one linked to the heroines of great melodrama, from Leonora to Nedda, from Violetta to Tosca forced to certain death. Surviving happily are the cunning Rosine, Norine, Amine, Adine ...

Women who live the Risorgimento uprisings with strength not like the succumbing heroines drawn by librettists and composers. Women who overcome the ephemerality typical of musical art by voluntarily leaving the mark of their creativity in compositions entrusted to the publishing market. Finally, women who in the era of early feminism and emancipation ascend the professorship and become teachers and professional composers. They die in stage fiction, but struggle and assert themselves in reality despite the men.