Giuseppe Verdi Antropologo del Mediterraneo

Opera arias by Giuseppe Verdi performed by the students of the Accademia Verdiana at the Teatro Regio in Parma.

A public lecture, held in Italian, organised by Michael Herzfeld of Harvard University, in collaboration with the University of Parma and the Accademia Verdiana.

Event organised by Diego Saglia and Sabrina Tosi Cambini (University of Parma, ‘Parma e l’Altrove’ Project) and Francesco Izzo (academic director of the Accademia Verdiana).

Giuseppe Verdi was not merely a great composer and connoisseur of the human soul. He was also a thinker whose musical and dramatic choices reflected his conception of ethical values – values which were, for the most part, taken for granted by a large section of his audience: honour, shame, fate, and even patriotism. He consistently displayed a refined, nuanced and at times scathing critical eye towards the prevailing attitudes of his era, as well as in political life. The speaker, Michael Herzfeld, a specialist in, amongst other things, the anthropology of Southern Europe – and himself a critic of the conventional portrayal of ‘Mediterranean cultures’ in anthropology, and reflecting in a manner that is both autobiographical and comparative on the representation of ethics in Verdi’s works (particularly those from his early years as a composer) and in anthropology, will offer us an interpretation quite removed from the literal one that often obscures the rebellious spirit that animates so many of Verdi’s operas. Of these, the least well-known is probably Stiffelio, the subject matter of which, however, could turn conventional interpretations of Ernani, Nabucco and La Forza del Destino on their head. The speaker will also explore how that music, often seen as an expression of Italian identity, moves even those who do not share that national identity – or indeed the underlying political ideology – and will conclude with a reflection on the historical distortions of the significance of both Giuseppe Verdi and the Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico, who is also often regarded as a champion of Italian identity.

Michael Herzfeld, born in London in 1947, is Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and has collaborated with various universities in Europe, Asia and Australia. He is an anthropologist renowned both for his theoretical contributions and for his extensive ‘fieldwork’ in Italy and Greece, as well as in Thailand. He is the author of fifteen books, including Lo Stato Nazione e i suoi mali, which was written in Italian. Four others have been translated into Italian: Antropologia. Pratica della teoria nella cultura e nella società, Intimità culturale. Antropologia e nazionalismo, La produzione sociale dell’indifferenza e Sfrattati dall’eternità. La ristrutturazione neoliberista a Roma. Among the various themes he explores, the tension between official culture and everyday social life stands out. He has been a lover of Verdi’s works since his teenage years, and, having already published a couple of experimental articles on Verdi, with this lecture he is fulfilling a long-standing passion whilst also making an original academic contribution.

The lecture will be held in Italian.