Opera and Nation. International Musicological Conference November 3, 2010

The Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is pleased to announce an international conference to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Ferenc Erkel (7 November 1810), founder of Hungarian National Opera both as a genre and an institution.

The conference will be held in the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Palais Erd dy), Budapest (4-5 November), and in the Municipal Library of Gyula, place of birth of the composer in the South-East part of the Great Hungarian Plain (6 November). Return journey to Budapest and departure on 7 November.

The organisers would like to put up for discussion the multifaceted relationship of opera as a genre, as well as an institution, to the reality and ideality of the nation and the national in European context, chronologically restricted to the ‘long 19th century’. Presentations exploring the following topics are especially encouraged:

• What is national in opera: Contemporary ideas and notions

• Outstanding personalities

• Opera in the context of national theatre

• Opera and historicism; the epic and the sacral

• Opera, nationality and cosmopolitism

• Opera and politics

• Opera, folklore, folklore imaginaire

• Related national musical genres for the stage

Official languages of the conference: English, German.

Conference information provided by konferenciakalauz.hu

Official Website: http://www.zti.hu/