OBERTO

At the 2023 OBERTO conference, Mimi Doulton started the final discussion panel with a passionate statement about the essential but undervalued role of freelancer in the operatic world. You can read the full text of her statement on our OBERTO blog.

Freelancers in the opera industry At the 2023 OBERTO conference dedicated to the topic “Opera and Money”, singer Mimi Doulton opened the panel discussion with the following impassioned plea about the essential role freelancers play…

Conversations continue during the coffee break! There's quite a buzz!

From historical case studies to quantitative analysis applied to archival work, from capital cities to the province, from government subsidies to philanthropy… we’re off to a great start!

And we’re off! Such a joy to welcome old and new friends and colleague and spend the day discussing opera and money!

Headington Hill Hall is looking good ahead of tomorrow's study day on "Opera and Money", organised by the OBERTO opera research group.

Registration is now open for our conference on "Opera and Money", which will take place on the 12th of September. Have a look at the programme! Participation is free, but you will need to register by sending an email to [email protected] Looking forward to seeing many of you!

Forthcoming Events OBERTO conference 2023 ‘AN EXCLUSIVE AND EXPENSIVE ARTICLE?’ OPERA AND MONEY Tuesday 12 September 2023 Oxford Brookes University Opera has a reputation as the most extravagant of art forms. Even mo…

Prof Alexandra Wilson was invited by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Opera at the House of Lords. She told them about her historical research on opera and politics in the UK over the last century. Opera was a popular entertainment in the interwar years - so why is it today criticised as the most elitist of the arts?!

We are back! After a hiatus of 3 years, the annual OBERTO conference returns this September, with the exciting topic "Opera and money". We are looking forward to inspiring papers and lively discussions - please contact us if you have any ideas for a poster, paper or panel.
More details can be found on our website:

Forthcoming Events OBERTO conference 2023 ‘AN EXCLUSIVE AND EXPENSIVE ARTICLE?’ OPERA AND MONEY Tuesday 12 September 2023 Oxford Brookes University Opera has a reputation as the most extravagant of art forms. Even mo…

Dr Barbara Eichner went to ENO today to record an interview for BBC Radio 3's "Music Matters" on Wagner's operas in translation. She could even sneak into a "Rheingold" rehearsal afterwards!

Alexandra Wilson weighs in on opera and elitism apropos of the Raynor-Raab exchange (sadly behind a pay wall, but the comments are telling, too):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/dominic-raabs-opera-snobbery-proof-britains-problem-highbrow/

Dominic Raab’s opera snobbery is proof of Britain’s problem with ‘highbrow’ art In mocking Angela Rayner’s Glyndebourne visit, the Deputy PM showed his ignorance of British cultural history – and the beauty of opera

Our opera specialist Dr Alessandra Palidda will give a guest lecture tomorrow at the University of Vienna, entitled: "From Habsburg province to Napoleonic republic: Milan as a transnational cultural powerhouse, 1796–1802".
Unfortunately in-person only, but Vienna is such a nice place at this time of the year ...
https://musikwissenschaft.univie.ac.at/detailansicht/news/gastvortrag-alessandra-palidda-oxford-brookes-university/

Gastvortrag Alessandra Palidda (Oxford Brookes University) From Habsburg province to Napoleonic republic: Milan as a transnational cultural powerhouse, 1796–1802

Our School of Arts has a new website, featuring OBERTO in a new and sleek design: https://cora.brookes.ac.uk/opera-research-unit-oberto/
Anything that's too much or missing?

Opera Research Unit (OBERTO) Group Leaders: Professor Alexandra Wilson, Dr Barbara EichnerContact: [email protected] Facebook Twitter About Us OBERTO – named after Giuseppe Verdi’s first opera – is the opera res…

We are delighted to see our colleague Dr Claudio Vellutini in Oxford next week, where he will speak at the Graduate Research Colloquia on Tuesday, 26 April. The topic is "Performing Rossini's Otello in Early Ninteenth-Century Vienna", and the talk will be accessible both in person and via zoom: https://www.music.ox.ac.uk/event/graduate-research-colloquium-7

Graduate Research Colloquium: Claudio Vellutini (University of British Columbia) Claudio Vellutini joined the UBC School of Music in 2016. His research interests focus on the cultural and reception history of nineteenth-century Italian opera, its dissemination in the Habsburg Empire, historiography, performance practice, and staging. He has published essays and reviews in 19th-C...

Congratulations to our visiting research fellow Dr Andrew Holden for publishing his research in such august company!

Happy birthday Oberto!

In the beginning: Verdi’s first opera, Oberto, was premiered in Milan ⁦ Teatro Allla Scala ⁩ in 1839.

Tonight (6.30pm) on BBC Opera on 3: "Tannhäuser" recorded at Bayreuth in July 2021. Come for Stephen Gould's and Lise Davidsen's performance; stay for the commentary by our music historian Dr Barbara Eichner:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00113th

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Wagner's Tannhäuser Kate Molleson presents Wagner's story of love and passion from the 2021 Bayreuth Festival.

Now published and available in open access: Barbara Eichner's chapter on monks and nuns on the 19th-century operatic stage!
https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5746-3/musikgeschichte-auf-der-buehne-performing-music-history/?c=311000021

Join Prof Alexandra Wilson in Cardiff as she explores the legacy of the most legendary of tenors, Enrico Caruso. Free tickets for this event with live music can be booked at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/caruso-at-100-the-legacy-of-an-operatic-icon-tickets-169432975591?fbclid=IwAR02lMVqMBRRbtAgaywPr6FqYDaathA8CZLDxpUkBWn5curPNCJQMfQ1TkU

Our OBERTO team is growing! We are delighted that Dr Andrew Holden has joined us as visiting researcher from summer 2021. Andrew is an expert in Italian opera of the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as a consultant in arts and heritage management. He will take the lead in developing the new OBERTO seminar series, so watch this space!
https://obertobrookes.com/staff/

We were delighted to learn that Michael Volpe, founder and former director of Opera Holland Park, has been awarded an OBE for services to opera. He is pictured here in 2016 (with Alexandra Wilson), when Oxford Brookes awarded him an honorary doctorate. Congratulations, Michael!

OBERTO updated their address.

OBERTO updated their business hours.

In the latest issue of "Opera" magazine, Alexandra Wilson responds to Jonathan Cross' challenge to the operatic canon and argues in favour of a good balance between tried-and-tested favourites and new repertoire: https://www.opera.co.uk/current/

Current Issue | Opera Magazine Our cover this month features the soprano Lise Davidsen, winner of the Female Singer category in the International Opera Awards. You’ll find a full listing of all the other winners inside the magazine.

A new publication from the OBERTO team: Alexandra Wilson and Andrew Holden have published articles about "Opera for the country lout" and "A slice of operatic life in London's East End" in a special issue of the "Journal of Modern Italian Studies", co-edited by Andrew Holden. https://obertobrookes.com/2021/04/16/new-publication-italian-musical-migrations/

On Wednesday evening, Barbara Eichner will give an online lecture for the Wagner Society on Wagner and Mendelssohn - details below!

“The spectre of success: Wagner, Mendelssohn and anti-Semitism in 19th-century music”
with Dr Barbara Eichner
6.30pm, Wed 10th March 2021, Live on Zoom

Throughout his life, Richard Wagner maintained close ties with many other composers, but none were as ambivalent and problematic as his relationship with his near contemporary Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-47). What seems to have begun as a generally amicable, if distant, relationship became a lifelong obsession following Mendelssohn’s early death and Wagner’s flight from Dresden in the wake of the 1849 uprisings. This lecture will approach the biographical tangle from two directions. On the one hand, it will discuss how Wagner’s notorious tract Das Judenthum in der Musik (1850/1869) interacted with existing clichés of Mendelssohn as conservative classicist and darling of fortune; and how its formulation of a “modern” type of anti-Semitism shaped the reception of Mendelssohn and his music. On the other, it will investigate why Wagner’s fascination with Mendelssohn continued long after the older composer’s death; and why, in his writings, letters and private conversations, he returned time and again to their few encounters in the 1840s.
Dr Barbara Eichner is Reader in Music at Oxford Brookes University. Since the completion of her monograph History in Mighty Sounds: Musical Constructions of German National Identity (1848-1914), she has increasingly turned to the investigation of Richard Wagner’s works in their cultural context. Most recently she has published a chapter in the Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s Ring about the critical reception of the Ring cycle, and a chapter on “Richard Wagner’s Medieval Visions” for the Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism. She enjoys giving pre-concert talks and is regularly invited to comment on Wagner broadcasts for BBC Opera on 3; recently she contributed to the Wagner edition of James MacMillan’s series Faith in Music on BBC Radio 4.

This online event is £5 to all members, £10 for non-members (Refundable on joining) and free for students/under 30s. Please register your interest below and you will be sent a Zoom link on March 10th. Please do not contact us for the link unless it has not been received immediately before the lecture is due to begin.

Register here:
https://wagnersociety.org/events/the-spectre-of-success-wagner-mendelssohn-and-anti-semitism-in-19th-century-music-with-dr-barbara-eichner/

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