Maine Humanities Council

James T. Morgan was a long-time friend and colleague at The Opera Company of Boston of the late Sarah Caldwell, the most innovative opera director of mid-20th-century America and the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera. He worked with Caldwell on a production of the War and Peace opera by Sergei Prokofiev (pictured at right), which he described in this Winter Weekend talk. Morgan moved to Maine in 1999 and became director of development and marketing for PCA Great Performances. He now serves on its board and the board of the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He lives in Freeport.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Tolstoy’s War and Peace in March 2009.

Prokofiev's War and Peace [ 49:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4132)

Andrew Walkling is Dean’s Assistant Professor of Early Modern Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he teaches in the departments of art history, English, and theater and is affiliated with the faculties of history, music, and philosophy. He earned a Ph.D. in British history from Cornell. A Fellow of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, he works in an interdisciplinary field focusing on the courts of Charles II and James II (1660-88). He is writing a book entitled Masque and Opera in Restoration England. Two handouts accompanied his talk on 17th-century interpretations of the Aeneid. You can download them both in PDF format: Handout 1; Handout 2.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Virgil’s Aeneid in March 2008. We welcome your feedback on this Andrew Walkling podcast.

Dido’s Lament: Virgilian Epic and 17th Century English Opera [ 1:00:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6811)