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News and Events
April 24, 2013,
5:00pm, NYU Humanities Initiative (20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor)
"The Triumphs of La traviata: Violetta and the Goose
Girl from the Orne." Lecture by René Weis (University College London)
This
lecture focuses on some of the ways in which the story of a real-life
young woman, Alphonsine Duplessis, is reflected and transcended in
Verdi's opera, La traviata. As the real-life Marie Duplessis was herself keenly interested in opera - she would have been at the Paris premieres of Don Pasquale and Nabucco
- it seems poetically just that she should live on in the most moving
of all operas. The lecture explores the 1840s Paris scene, its music,
theatre, and boulevards, arguing that in Traviata
Verdi attempted to capture the quintessence, as he saw it, of a young
woman who was a legend in her time, whose tragic fate may moreover have
struck a deeply private chord with him. In Dumas and in the early
stages of composition she had the same name as Verdi's dead wife,
Margherita Barezzi. Rather than being inspired by Strepponi, it may be
that the driving inner force of the opera was after all Verdi's own
'angel'.
René Weis is Professor of English Literature at University College
London (UCL) where he has taught for many years. He has edited King Lear for Longman, Henry IV Part 2 for Oxford, and most recently Romeo and Juliet for the Arden Shakespeare. He is the author of Shakespeare Revealed: A Biography (John Murray), Criminal Justice: The True Story of Edith Thompson (Penguin), and The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars
(Penguin), which has been translated into seven languages. In 2009 he
was awarded a three-year Major Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for
a book on the genesis of Verdi’s La traviata. He is the University of London Trustee of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and a Governor of Goodenough College in Bloomsbury.
For location, RSVP, and other information please visit the website of the Humanities Initiative:
http://www.humanitiesinitiative.org/index.php/hievents/currentevents
October 9-13, 2013, NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò and Humanities Initiative
Verdi's Third Century: Italian Opera Today • An International Conference
As we approach the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi
(1813-1901), interest in his operas remains undiminished. Verdi's music
continues to travel around the world in live performances and
recordings, and new technologies--from the internet to high-definition
simulcasts--have made opera accessible to broader audiences. The
international conference Verdi's Third Century: Italian Opera Today
will bring together scholars, practitioners, and critics at New York
University to discuss the circulation and perception of Verdi--and of
Italian opera--in today's world. A principal focus will be how Verdi’s
works have been interpreted, imagined, and appropriated. The call for
papers is now closed. Further information on the conference is
available on the conference page at www.nyu.edu/projects/verdi/thirdcentury.html.
October 2013, American Institute for Verdi Studies
Martin Chusid Award for Verdi Studies
The American Institute for Verdi Studies announces the creation of the
Martin Chusid Award for Verdi Studies. The award honors the noted
Verdi, Schubert, and Mozart scholar, Martin Chusid, Professor Emeritus
of Music at New York University and the AIVS's Founding Director.
The first Martin Chusid Award will be conferred in October 2013 at the
"Verdi's Third Century" conference organized by the AIVS at New York
University. The inaugural award
considers works published in 2010, 2011, or 2012 by a scholar in the early stages of his or
her career . The winner will
receive a cash prize of $1,000 and an invitation to present a lecture on
Verdi at New York University. The deadline for nominations for the first Martin Chusid Award has now
passed. Information on the current and future editions is available on the Martin Chusid Award page at www.nyu.edu/projects/verdi/chusidaward.html.
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