How to end a war: The living and the dead working together in baroque opera
Tue 4 Feb 2025, 18:00 - 19:30
- Accessibility
- Hearing loop
- Wheelchair accessible venue
Contact the events team for further information about accessibility at this event.
- Venue
- The Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, The University of Manchester, Bridgeford Street, Manchester M13 9PL
- Price
- Free
- Event series
- The British Academy Lectures
Event ended
About the event
The history of opera is charged with urgent, daring, and compassionate strategies that were often deployed to soften hard hearts.
It had the power to create and propose unexpectedly evolving structures of equality and reconciliation, with five generations of European artists who fed the imaginary of civil societies with seeds of democratic possibilities.
Enlightenment operas by Rameau, Mozart, and Handel prophetically argued for the future of democracy in a European context, which did in fact arrive in the coming decades.
This lecture will call out specific operas from the 18th century to address working projects now being proposed by contemporary artists that span cultures, histories, and futures.
Speaker
Professor Peter Sellars, University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Peter Sellars has gained international renown for his ground-breaking and transformative interpretations of classics, advocacy of 20th-century and contemporary music, and collaborative projects.
His work illuminates the power of art as a means of moral expression and social action. Sellars is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA.
He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture, the Gish Prize, the Polar Music Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Chair
Professor Maria Delgado, Central School of Speech and Drama
About our Lecture programme
Delivered by the most outstanding academics in the UK and beyond, the British Academy’s flagship Lecture programme showcases the very best scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. This event is part of the Aspects of Art Lectures, first delivered in 1916.
Event details
Free, booking required
This event will take place in person in partnership with the University of Manchester. If you have any questions about this event, please email [email protected].
Doors open: 17:45
Lecture: 18:00-19:30
Reception: 19:30
Photo of Professor Peter Sellars by Ruth Walz.
Organised in partnership with:
