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Event



Colloquium: Prof. Naomi André on opera and race (Music Building)

Naomi André
Oct 25, 2018 at - | Music Building (Lerner Center) - Room 101

We are excited to announce that Prof.  (University of Michigan), a distinguished scholar of Italian opera and of related issues of gender and race, will present a talk entitled

“Black Opera and Verdi: Ulrica, Aida, and Otello”

Please see abstract below. Prof. André has just published a new book entitled  for University of Illinois Press.

The talk is co-sponsored by the , and will take place in the Music Building (Lerner Center), room 101.

On the next day, Prof. André will participate in an interdisciplinary conference on African-American contralto , co-sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies (and by other entities at Ƶ), which will take place in the Kislak Center (Van Pelt Library), please see .

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Abstract: In this talk prof. André outlines a way of thinking about opera through an engaged musicological approach that explores issues around performing signature roles in three Verdi masterpieces: Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera (1859), and the title roles in Aida (1871) and Otello (1887). Evolving constructions of race and identity shape our understandings of these operas today and raise provocative questions around the practice of blackface and representation. Embedded in the reception of these roles is the opportunity to examine how the music, text, and performer come together to provide multiple meanings today.