Music Research Seminar: Mark Berry (Royal Holloway University of London)

This seminar will look at Mozart and Caterino Mazzolà’s ‘La clemenza di Tito’ (1791) both as a coronation opera for Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia, and as a new ‘version’ of Pietro Metastasio’s original libretto of 1734, also written for a Habsburg celebration. It will consider the work’s exploration of political ideas such as rebellion, clemency, and kingship in the light of 17th- and 18th-century Bohemian history, and current events in the Habsburg lands and elsewhere in Europe, the French Revolution included. It will also reflect on the problems and opportunities of relating a musical drama to contemporary political discourse, when direct evidence of its creators’ personal views is fragmentary or lacking.

Professor Mark Berry read History at the University of Cambridge, continuing there to study for an MPhil and PhD, before being elected in 2001 as a Fellow of Peterhouse, where he remained until 2009, upon his appointment as Lecturer in Music at Royal Holloway. He has lectured on subjects ranging from political culture at Louis XIV’s Versailles to European Marxism and music after 1945. His research has tended to draw upon his interests in both History and Music, as well as upon other disciplines, such as Philosophy, Theology, Art and Architectural History, Theatre Studies, and Literature.

Treacherous Bonds and Laughing Fire: Politics and Religion in Wagner’s ‘Ring’was published by Ashgate in 2006. For his work on Wagner he has received the Prince Consort Prize and the Seeley Medal. He write a number of articles for theCambridge Wagner Encyclopaedia, published in 2013; they range from short biographical pieces to essays on topics such as 'German History', 'Morality', and 'Politics'. Dr Berry is also co-editor with Professor Nicholas Vazsonyi of TheCambridge Companion to Wagner's 'Der Ring des Nibelungen', published in 2020. Read more. 

Admission free, no booking necessary.