SC Talk: Michael and Linda Hutcheon, Medicine and English/Comparative Literature, U of T, “We…the sons of Palestrina”
- This event has passed.
March 16, 2022 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
NEW* Speaker Information for March 16, 2022—Hybrid: In-person AND ZOOM
*The scheduled speaker Lynne Hasher has had to cancel her talk.
Speakers: Michael and Linda Hutcheon, Medicine and English/Comparative Literature, U of T
Introducer (on Zoom): Daphne Maurer
Zoom Host: Jim Gurd
Title: “We…the sons of Palestrina”: Opera and Italian Cultural Nationalism from Verdi to Puccini
Abstract: This talk brings together the politics and history of the founding of the Italian nation in 1861 with a complicated moment in the history of opera, the art form that was the major expression of “Italianness” or “Italianità” both before and after Unification. Giuseppe Verdi was at the end of a very successful career as the major Italian composer of the 19th century, and was concerned about his legacy. A staunch cultural nationalist, even before there was a nation called Italy, Verdi saw himself as the descendent of Palestrina, the 16th-century Roman master of musical counterpoint. And, he wanted those Italian composers who would follow him to be in this direct line of descent, rejecting all other musical influences, especially those from the other side of the Alps. Verdi fiercely lamented the impact of Germanic music on his younger countrymen: it represented the tradition, not of Palestrina, but of Bach, and it continued not to Verdi, but to Wagner. However, it was the combined impact of Wagner—and the internationalist modernity he came to represent—and the Italian tradition of Verdi that would make the operas of Giacomo Puccini both beloved of audiences and scorned by critics.
Bios:
Linda Hutcheon holds the rank of University Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. She is author of 9 books on contemporary postmodern culture in Canada and around the world. She has edited 5 other books on cultural topics.
Michael Hutcheon is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. A pulmonologist specializing in lung transplantation, his scientific research publications encompass a number of areas: pulmonary physiology; bone marrow transplantation; AIDS. He has also published in the fields of medical education and the semiotics of both cigarette and pharmaceutical advertising.
They have done collaborative, interdisciplinary work on the cultural construction of sexuality, gender and disease in opera (Opera: Desire, Disease, Death, 1996), both the real and the represented operatic body (Bodily Charm: Living Opera, 2000), the lessons opera teaches about mortality (Opera: The Art of Dying, 2004), and the later creative life and “late style” of opera composers (Four Last Songs: Aging and Creativity in Verdi, Strauss, Messiaen, and Britten, 2015).
The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/tUkzVa1M0j
The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.
This week’s talk will be on Zoom.
(This is for technical reasons—guaranteeing the quality of audio and video files that will be used is a problem at the Faculty Club with our current hybrid/Zoom format.)
BUT: please feel free to go to lunch at the Club beforehand and watch the Zoom lecture with your friends and colleagues in the comfort of the Club. Or, of course, you can participate from home via Zoom.
The deadline to register is 3 PM on Monday March 14.
If you are coming to the Club for lunch please arrive before 12:30. Now that the kitchen is back in regular operation, it’s not necessary to come as early as noon in order to be finished before the talk. If you are coming just for the talk, please arrive by 1:45 to enjoy coffee and cookies beforehand.
This will be a hybrid event. You may choose to eat lunch at the Faculty Club with other Fellows, enjoy the talk from the Faculty Club, or register for Zoom only. The deadline to register is 3 PM on the preceding Monday.
Everyone who enters the Faculty Club must provide proof of full vaccination and identification to verify. Once in the building, please wear a mask until seated but you may remove it when eating or drinking. The mask must be put on if moving about the building. If you have questions about coming to the Faculty Club, contact Daphne Maurer, daphne@maurer.ca.
If you have any questions regarding registration, please contact the organizer Linda Hutcheon at l.hutcheon@utoronto.ca.