A Conversation with Giuseppe Gerbino (Columbia University) and Alan Maddox (Sydney Conservatorium of Music)
The Italian Cultural Institute is pleased to host an evening dedicated to the history of Italian opera in the United States and Australia on Thursday 17 August at 18.00. It will be a conversation between Prof. Giuseppe Gerbino of Columbia University (New York) and Dr Alan Maddox of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, who will discuss the historical circumstances that led to the migration, starting from the first decades of the 19th century, of Italian opera singers, thus favouring the creation of institutions and opera houses in the United States and Australia, countries in which at that time this musical genre was not yet widespread.
Giuseppe Gerbino is Professor of Music and Historical Musicology at the Columbia University, Department that he chaired between 2011 and 2014. His research interests include the Italian madrigal, the relationship between music and language in the early modern period, early opera, and Renaissance theories of cognition and sense perception. He is the author of several successful publications that have appeared in the «Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies», «The Musical Quarterly», «Studi Musicali», and «Il Saggiatore Musicale». He has received grants and fellowships from the American Musicological Society, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti), the Renaissance Society of America, the Mellon Foundation (Newberry Library), the American Philosophical Society, and the Italian National Research Center (CNR). His most recent publication is, Italian Opera in the United States, 1800-1850: At the Origin of a Cultural Migration (April 2023).
Alan Maddox is Senior Lecturer in Musicology and Program Leader, Bachelor of Music (Musicology Major) and Master of Music (Musicology) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. An accomplished singer, Alan has performed professionally with Opera Australia and as a freelance artist in Europe and Australia. He is also a respected music writer and public lecturer, giving regular pre-concert talks for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and for Musica Viva, as well as writing book and recording reviews for journals including «Early Music», «Musicology Australia» and «Music Forum». Alan Maddox’s research and teaching focuses mainly on the history and performance practice of European music before 1800, and on music in Australian colonial society (1788-1900). Recent publications include articles on rhetoric and performance practice in 18th century opera and sacred music, and on music and prison reform in the 19th century penal colony on Norfolk Island. He is currently working on a book on the performance practice of Italian recitative.
Free entry. Limited seats.
Booking essential: www.eventbrite.com.au