Category Archives: Events
Becoming Modern: British and American Melodrama
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, October 25, 2019
We are pleased to announce a one-day conference on early film and Victorian stage melodrama in Britain and the United States, to be held at Rutgers University, New Brunswick on October 25. The conference will include talks by Jim Davis, Christine Gledhill, Taryn Hakala, Dan Novak, Michael Pisani, and Sharon Weltman, and a keynote address by David Mayer. This is an unusual opportunity to gather with some of the finest scholars working in the field, and MRC members are encouraged to attend. For more information, contact Carolyn Williams (williams@english.rutgers.edu) and Matthew Buckley (buckley@english.rutgers.edu).
Puccini’s “Tosca” at The Metropolitan Opera
Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca will be playing at the New York Metropolitan Opera from December 31st – May 12th.
Sir David McVicar’s ravishing new production offers a splendid backdrop for two extraordinary sopranos sharing the title role of the jealous prima donna: Sonya Yoncheva (pictured above in La Traviata) and Anna Netrebko. Vittorio Grigolo and Marcelo Álvarez alternate in the role of Tosca’s revolutionary artist lover Cavaradossi, with Sir Bryn Terfel, Michael Volle, and Željko Lučić as the depraved police chief Scarpia. 
Music Director Emeritus James Levine conducts.
Puccini’s melodrama about a volatile diva, a sadistic police chief, and an idealistic artist has offended and thrilled audiences for more than a century. Critics, for their part, have often had problems with Tosca’s rather grungy subject matter, the directness and intensity of its score, and the crowd-pleasing dramatic opportunities it provides for its lead roles. But these same aspects have made Tosca one of a handful of iconic works that seem to represent opera in the public imagination. Tosca’s popularity is further secured by a superb and exhilarating dramatic sweep, a driving score of abundant melody and theatrical shrewdness, and a career-defining title role.
Pixerécourt’s melodrama La Forteresse du Danube (1805)
On Friday 25th August there will be a one-off community performance of Pixerécourt’s melodrama La Forteresse du Danube (1805) in translation at the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, North Yorkshire. It will have a professional director, Sarah Wynne Kordas, and orchestra, led by musicologist and violinist Dr Diane Tisdall, with Dr Sarah Burdett as dramaturge. We will be using the original score to the Lille performances of the play. The performance takes place during Richmond’s Georgian festival and is a great opportunity to experience a Napoleonic melodrama in Britain’s oldest working theatre.
Tickets are on sale for £9 at http://georgiantheatreroyal.savoysystems.co.uk/GeorgianTheatreRoyal.dll/TSelectItems.waSelectItemsPrompt.TcsWebMenuItem_1352.TcsWebTab_1353
The performance is the culmination of an AHRC-funded project on staging Napoleonic theatre and we hope you’ll be able to join us for a great night out.
Follow us on Twitter @actingmelodrama
More details about the project can be found here:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/research/french/currentprojects/napoleonictheatre/staging/
Roots at 40: Reflections and Remembrances
“In the final week of January, 1977, the ABC miniseries Roots became the most-watched television program of all time. To the surprise of the show’s producers, Roots became not only a ratings windfall, but a cultural phenomenon, articulating an African-American counter-narrative of American history, provoking a dialogue about the legacy of slavery, and presenting African-American characters with a dignity and integrity that differed sharply from the caricatured representations common to television up to that time. In many ways, the response to the show by the media and the general public constitutes the first of many “conversations about race” that have punctuated the Post-Civil Rights era.
On October 6 and 7 of 2017, Goodwin College will host a special conference to mark the 40th anniversary of the original broadcast of Roots. Goodwin College houses a significant repository of Alex Haley’s writings, and it is committed to promoting dialogue about social justice and opportunity for all.”
See http://goodwin.libguides.com/roots40 for more information including information about the keynote speaker Colson Whitehead and the schedule.
Exhibition Announcement: “Napoleon’s Last Stand: 100 Days in 100 Objects”
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An online exhibition, curated by the University of Warwick, will provide a new angle on the Battle of Waterloo, whose bicentennial anniversary is commemorated this year.
Launching 23 February 2015, the exhibition will trace Napoleon’s return and defeat by releasing one object for each day of the period known as the ‘100 Days’. Go to http://www.100days.eu to relive the drama of Napoleon’s return day by day.
As part of the backstory already up on the site, you can find out what links Napoleon and Pixerécourt’s 1805 melodrama Robinson Crusoe.
Melodrama Research Consortium 