Cardiff to host Carmen Singer of the World Conference

Eighteen academics from across Europe, Australia and the Americas will come together to speak at the Carmen Singer of the World Conference in Cardiff this June.

The international conference, held in collaboration with the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, will focus on how the most widely performed opera globally – Bizet’s Carmen – was first performed, produced, disseminated, appropriated and received worldwide.

Subjects of discussion will include Spanish versions of Carmen, how Carmen became a repertory opera in Italy, and Carmen in Australia: 1879 until WWI.

The conference will result in the multi-author book Carmen Abroad co-edited by Dr Clair Rowden (Cardiff University) and Prof. Richard Langham Smith.

There will also be two open-access public lunchtime events:

On Wednesday 14 June, Annabel Arden whose first production of Carmen opens at the Grange Festival in June 2017, explores a selection of the dialogue and ensemble scenes of the opera with a cast of student singers and professional actors, Aïcha Kossoko and Tonderai Munyevu, from her production, giving academics and the audience an overview of her intellectual and artistic processes

On Thursday 15 June, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa recounts her experiences of Carmen, having sung both the title role and that of Michaëla in the course of her prestigious career.

The conference will be held at the School of Music on 14-16 June 2017.
Booking is open now.

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