Best Monteverdi Podcasts (2024)

1
Grazia Ting Deng, "Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy" (Princeton UP, 2024) 41:23

12d ago41:23

41:23

Why and how local coffee bars in Italy--those distinctively Italian social and cultural spaces--have been increasingly managed by Chinese baristas since the Great Recession of 2008? Italians regard espresso as a quintessentially Italian cultural product--so much so that Italy has applied to add Italian espresso to UNESCO's official list of intangib…

1
177: Ben Levy from Classics Explained 31:49

18d ago31:49

31:49

How can recontextualising classical music help build a new audience for the genre? Classics Explained YouTube producer Ben Levy explores the opportunities he's discovered using animation to tell the story of some of classics most-loved works, and some of the pushback he's received doing so.

1
Elizabeth Coggeshall, "On Amistà: Negotiating Friendship in Dante’s Italy" (U Toronto Press, 2023) 54:39

18d ago54:39

54:39

Although we often think of friendship today as an indisputable value of human social life, for thinkers and writers across late mediaeval Christian society friendship raised a number of social and ethical dilemmas that needed to be carefully negotiated. On Amistà: Negotiating Friendship in Dante’s Italy (University of Toronto Press, 2023) analyses …

1
Anthony Kaldellis, "The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium" (Oxford UP, 2024) 35:12

19d ago35:12

35:12

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features,…

1
Kristen Wile on Charlotte StrEATs

21d ago

—

Each Spring the Charlotte Shout! Festival takes place in uptown Charlotte, and one important component of the festival is Charlotte StrEATs, which focuses on food. This week we talk to one of the producers of Charlotte StrEATs, Kristen Wile from Unpretentious Palate, a digital publication covering food and drink in our region. She gives us an overv…

1
Chiara Renzo, "Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity" (Routledge, 2023) 36:56

1M ago36:56

36:56

Chiara Renzo's book Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity (Routledge, 2023) focuses on the experiences of thousands of Jewish displaced persons (DPs) who lived in refugee camps in Italy between the liberation of the southern regions in 1943 and the early 1950s, waiting for their resettlement outside of Euro…

1
176: Cellist Tim Posner 24:07

1M ago24:07

24:07

This episode spotlights a new release from cellist Tim Posner. Recorded weeks ago, this episode has I'm sorry to say been subject to all manner of technical challenges. Publication has been delayed as a result. But all good things come to those who wait. And this is GOOD. Tim Posner's debut album includes music by Bloch, Bruch and Dohnanyi is a cas…

1
Colin Elliott, "Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World" (Princeton UP, 2024) 50:47

1M ago50:47

50:47

In the middle of the second century AD, Rome was at its prosperous and powerful apex. The emperor Marcus Aurelius reigned over a vast territory that stretched from Britain to Egypt. The Roman-made peace, or Pax Romana, seemed to be permanent. Then, apparently out of nowhere, a sudden sickness struck the legions and laid waste to cities, including R…

1
175: Monteverdi Choir's Israel in Egypt 28:57

1M ago28:57

28:57

Hailstones, frogs and sexy trills. Monteverdi Choir's director Peter Whelan joins Amy Wood and Nick Pritchard to introduce the detail and the colour in Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt.

1
174: On Conducting and Learning to Conduct 18:40

2M ago18:40

18:40

LPO Principal Concductor Edward Gardner, and LPO Conducting Fellows Charlotte Politi and Luis Castillo-Briceño reflecting on their roles as conductors and the process of developing their conducting presence.

1
Myrto Garani et al., "The Oxford Handbook of Roman Philosophy" (Oxford UP, 2023) 52:43

2M ago52:43

52:43

Several decades of scholarship have demonstrated that Roman thinkers developed in new and stimulating directions the systems of thought they inherited from the Greeks, and that, taken together, they offer many perspectives that are of philosophical interest in their own right. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Philosophy explores a range of such Roman p…

1
Roseen Giles, "Monteverdi and the Marvellous: Poetry, Sound, and Representation" (Cambridge UP, 2023) 59:09

2M ago59:09

59:09

The marvellous, a key concept in literary debates at the turn of the seventeenth century, involved sensory and perspectival transformation, a rhetoric built on the unexpected, contradictory, and thought-provoking. The composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) created a new practice in which the expressive materials of music and poetry were placed in …

1
Obert Bernard Mlambo, "Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War" (Bloomsbury, 2022) 1:04:10

2M ago1:04:10

1:04:10

In this highly original book Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War (Bloomsbury, 2022), Dr. Obert Bernard Mlambo offers a comparative and critical examination of the relationship between military veterans and land expropriation in the client-army of the first-century BC Roman Republic and veteran…

1
T. Corey Brennan, "The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol" (Oxford UP, 2022) 49:57

2M ago49:57

49:57

"Fascism" is a word ubiquitous in our contemporary political discourse, but few know about its roots in the ancient past or its long, strange evolution to the present. In ancient Rome, the fasces were a bundle of wooden rods bound with a leather cord, in which an axe was placed—in essence, a mobile kit for corporal or capital punishment. Attendants…

1
Mara Josi, "Rome, 16 October 1943: History, Memory, Literature" (Legenda, 2023) 1:07:20

2M ago1:07:20

1:07:20

Today I talked to Mara Josi about her new book Rome, 16 October 1943: History, Memory, Literature (Legenda, 2023). Rome. Saturday 16 October 1943. This is where and when the largest single round-up and deportation of Jews from Italy happened. 1259 people were arrested by the German occupiers and gathered in a temporary detention centre for two days…

1
Alexander Henry, "War Through Italian Eyes: Fighting for Mussolini, 1940-1943" (Routledge, 2021) 1:30:30

2M ago1:30:30

1:30:30

There is a popular notion that the Italian armed forces of the Second World War were an inferior fighting force. Despite the vast numbers taken prisoner, detailed studies of the experiences of these soldiers remain relatively uncommon and the value of this group to furthering our understanding of the Italian experience of war under Fascism is also …

1
Why is Right-Wing Extremism so Widespread in Italy? 36:41

2M ago36:41

36:41

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey interviews Marla Stone, a historian of Italian fascism at Occidental College, on the resurgence of the far right in Italy. The conversation delves into the origins of this resurgence and how Italy, a fairly homogeneous society, became a recipient of hundreds of thousand migrants, a…

1
Anthony Kaldellis, "Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium" (Harvard UP, 2019) 49:29

2M ago49:29

49:29

Though commonly used today to identify a polity that lasted for over a millennium, the label “Byzantine empire” is an anachronism imposed by more recent generations. As Anthony Kaldellis explains in Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium (Harvard University Press, 2019), this has contributed to the denial of the ethnic identity that most deni…

1
Matteo Millan, "The Blackshirts' Dictatorship: Armed Squads, Political Violence, and the Consolidation of Mussolini's Regime" (Routledge, 2022) 1:30:59

2M ago1:30:59

1:30:59

On October 1922 Mussolini became head of the Italian government, a situation that would last for twenty years. That power was obtained was largely due to the widespread violence perpetrated by blackshirts throughout Italy (squadristi). Violence however did not end. Old and new blackshirts played a major role in making Italy a fascist country. Contr…

1
Alan Black on Cellomania

3M ago

—

Alan Black, Principal Cello Emeritus of the Charlotte Symphony, joins Rachel to talk about Bach's Cello Suites and why he loves playing them. Alan and fellow cellist Grace Anderson will perform all six suites on WDAV's upcoming "Cellomania" Tour to Bach's region of Germany. Learn more about the Bach Cellomania Tour…

1
Neil Bernstein, "The Complete Works of Claudian" (Routledge, 2022) 29:45

3M ago29:45

29:45

Neil Bernstein's The Complete Works of Claudian (Routledge, 2022) offers a modern, accurate, and accessible translation of Claudian's work, published in English for the first time since 1922, and accompanied by detailed notes and a comprehensive glossary. Claudian (active 395-404 CE) was the last of the great classical Latin poets. His best-known w…

1
Marco Armiero et al., "Mussolini's Nature: An Environmental History of Italian Fascism" (MIT Press, 2022) 1:09:57

3M ago1:09:57

1:09:57

In this first environmental history of Italian fascism, Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, and Wilko Graf von Hardenberg reveal that nature and fascist rhetoric are inextricable. Mussolini's Nature explores fascist political ecologies, or rather the practices and narratives through which the regime constructed imaginary and material ecologies functio…

1
Adrian Goldsworthy, "Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry" (Basic Books, 2023) 1:08:39

3M ago1:08:39

1:08:39

For almost seven centuries, two powers dominated the region we now call the Middle East: Rome and Persia. From the west: The Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, later the Byzantine Empire. From the East: The Parthian Empire, later replaced by the Sasanian Empire. The two ancient superpowers spent centuries fighting for influence, paying each ot…

1
Eugenio Refini, "Staging the Soul: Allegorical Drama as Spiritual Practice in Baroque Italy" (Legenda, 2022) 53:13

3M ago53:13

53:13

As per William Shakespeare, ‘all the world’s a stage’. But what if the human soul was a stage too? What if the stage of the world and the stage of the soul coincided? And what if the soul was also the main character of the play? These questions are at the core of Eugenio Refini's book Staging the Soul: Allegorical Drama as Spiritual Practice in Bar…

1
Ian MacAllen, "Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) 52:49

3M ago52:49

52:49

In Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Ian MacAllen traces the evolution of traditional Italian-American cuisine, often referred to as “red sauce Italian,” from its origins in Italy to its transformation in America into a new, distinct cuisine. It is a fascinating social and culinary history exploring the integ…

1
Jessica Goethals, "Margherita Costa, Diva of the Baroque Court" (U Toronto Press, 2023) 1:04:26

3M ago1:04:26

1:04:26

The Roman singer, courtesan, and writer Margherita Costa won prominence and fame across the courts of Italy and France during the mid-seventeenth century. She secured a steady stream of elite patrons – including popes, queens, grand dukes, and influential cardinals – while male poets and librettists wrote celebratory poetry on her behalf. In additi…

1
Kyle Gervais et al., "Lucan and Flavian Epic" (Brill, 2023) 56:14

3M ago56:14

56:14

Roman imperial epic is enjoying a moment in the sun in the twenty-first century, as Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, Statius, and Silius Italicus have all been the subject of a remarkable increase in scholarly attention and appreciation. Lucan and Flavian Epic (Brill, 2023) characterizes and historicizes that moment, showing how the qualities of the poems …

1
Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, "Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History" (Routledge, 2020) 1:05:18

4M ago1:05:18

1:05:18

This original research on the forgotten Libyan genocide specifically recovers the hidden history of the fascist Italian concentration camps (1929-1934) through the oral testimonies of Libyan survivors. Ali Abdullatif Ahmida's book Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History (Routledge, 2020) links the Libyan genocide through cross-cultural a…

1
Peter J. Williamson, "Duce: The Contradictions of Power: The Political Leadership of Benito Mussolini" (Oxford UP, 2023) 1:31:42

4M ago1:31:42

1:31:42

Eighty years after the fall of Benito Mussolini, controversy remains about what his dictatorship represented. This reflects the different sides to the Duce's leadership: while adept at nurturing and enforcing his personal political power, Mussolini's lack of insight into the requirements of governance prevented him from converting this power into i…

1
Seth Bernard, "Building Mid-Republican Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy" (Oxford UP, 2018) 35:32

4M ago35:32

35:32

Building Mid-Republican Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy (Oxford University Press, 2018), offers a holistic treatment of the development of the Mid-Republican city from 396 to 168 BCE. As Romans established imperial control over Italy and beyond, the city itself radically transformed from an ambitious central Italian settlement into…

1
Roland Allen, "The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper" (Profile Books, 2023) 1:00:31

4M ago1:00:31

1:00:31

We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did this simple invention come from? How did they revolutionise our lives, and why are they such powerful tools for creativity? And how can using a notebook help you change the way you think? In The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper (Profile Books, 2023), Roland Allen reveals all the answers. Rang…

1
Roman Politics, Familiar Yet Foreign: A Conversation with Jed Atkins 55:08

4M ago55:08

55:08

How are Roman political assumptions similar to versus different from our own? What did the Founding Fathers get right and wrong about the Ancients? How did Rome deal with class conflict? Is America Rome? Joining Madison's Notes to discuss is Duke Classicist Jed Atkins, a specialist in Roman political thought. The conversation convers important diff…

1
John Christopoulos, "Abortion in Early Modern Italy" (Harvard UP, 2021) 56:30

4M ago56:30

56:30

Today we have John Christopoulos, Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia, to talk about his new book, Abortion in Early Modern Italy (Harvard University Press, 2021) In this authoritative history, John Christopoulos provides a provocative and far-reaching account of abortion in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy.…

1
Ilaria Tabusso Marcyan, "The Cultural Roots of Slow Food: Peasants, Partisans, and the Landscape of Italian Resistance" (Lexington Books, 2023) 1:06:57

4M ago1:06:57

1:06:57

The Cultural Roots of Slow Food: Peasants, Partisans, and the Landscape of Italian Resistance (Lexington Books, 2023) focuses on the work of a variety of intellectual activists, related food justice literature, and documentary films, and argues that contemporary forms of environmental activism, as they are rooted in local food and sustainable farmi…

1
173: Reflections, Recommendations & Previews 45:36

4M ago45:36

45:36

Lovely people from across the classical music industry share their reflections on the year gone by, and look forward to the year ahead. Hear thoughts and recommendations from violinist Fenella Humphreys, pianist Charles Owen, Roger Wright, London Chamber Orchestra's Jocelyn Lightfoot, Manchester Camerata's Bob Riley and Manchester Collective's Rakh…

1
Edward J. Watts, "The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea" (Oxford UP, 2021) 1:07:35

4M ago1:07:35

1:07:35

As this book intriguingly explores, for those who would make Rome great again and their victims, ideas of Roman decline and renewal have had a long and violent history. The decline of Rome has been a constant source of discussion for more than 2200 years. Everyone from American journalists in the twenty-first century AD to Roman politicians at the …

1
Timothy McCall, "Making the Renaissance Man: Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy" (Reaktion Books, 2023) 1:04:31

4M ago1:04:31

1:04:31

Looking beyond the marble elegance of Michelangelo's David, the pugnacious, passionate, and--crucially--important story of Renaissance manhood. Timothy McCall's book Making the Renaissance Man: Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy (Reaktion, 2023) explores the images, objects, and experiences that fashioned men and masculinity in the cour…

1
Laura Atkinson on Bach Christmas Oratorio

4M ago

—

Bach wrote his Christmas Oratorio for the Christmas season of 1734. It consists of six cantatas, each intended for performance on a feast day during the Christmas season. In June 2023, Bach Akademie Charlotte's Bach festival centered around the Christmas Oratorio. Laura Atkinson, a singer and the Education Director of Bach Akademie Charlotte, talks…

1
Alice Cavalieri, "Italian Budgeting Policy: Between Punctuations and Incrementalism" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) 56:13

4M ago56:13

56:13

European governments are emerging from 15 years of on-again, off-again crises that upended their budgetary positions. From close to balance in 2008, the aggregate budget deficit for governments using the euro is now 3% of output while public debt is up from 66% to 90%. These "processes happened more forcefully", writes Alice Cavalieri in Italian Bu…

1
EP11. Book Launch - Longborough Festival Opera: the first 30 years 57:54

5M ago57:54

57:54

Longborough Festival Opera: the first 30 years is a new book chronicling how a dream of an idea became bricks, mortar and sublime music. In this recording of the book launch, author Richard Bratby talks to music historian Sophie Redfern about Martin and Lizzie Graham's remarkable achievement, and the story of opera at Longborough. Internationally r…

1
Paolo Caroli, "Transitional Justice in Italy and the Crimes of Fascism and Nazism" (Routledge, 2022) 1:37:01

5M ago1:37:01

1:37:01

Paolo Caroli's book Transitional Justice in Italy and the Crimes of Fascism and Nazism (Routledge, 2022) presents a comprehensive analysis of the Italian experience of transitional justice examining how the crimes of Fascism and World War II have been dealt with from a comparative perspective. Applying an interdisciplinary and comparative methodolo…

1
D. L. d'Avray, "The Power of Protocol: Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400-c.1600" (Cambridge UP, 2023) 1:21:58

5M ago1:21:58

1:21:58

The Power of Protocol: Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400 – c.1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Dr. David d’Avray asks: How did the papacy govern European religious life without a proper bureaucracy and the normal resources of a state? From late Antiquity, papal responses were in demand. The 'apostolic see' took over …

1
172: Thomas Guthrie and Barokksolistene 19:43

5M ago19:43

19:43

Schubert's epic and much-revered song cycle Die Schoene Mullerin is given a folksy feel with a new recording released by Rubicon Classics featuring Barokksolistene and Thomas Guthrie (who you'll hear in this podcast episode). If you're pro-deference this one probably isn't for you, but if you're open, curious or in need of a fresh approach then com…

1
171: Katharine Dain and Sam Armstrong introduce 'Forget This Night' 33:30

5M ago33:30

33:30

Soprano Katharine Dain and pianist Sam Armstrong reflect on the recording of their latest ravishing duo album Forget This Night, featuring the music of Lili Boulanger, Karol Szymanowski, and Grażyna Bacewicz.

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