A seminar with

Richard A. Kaye
Associate Professor of English at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center
James Melo
Musicologist for the Ensemble for the Romantic Century and Senior Editor at RILM Abstracts of Music Literature

Oscar Wilde’s multifaceted personality, his biting wit, and the brilliance of his artistic genius added sparkle and glamour to late Victorian society, making him the darling of England’s salons and artistic circles. But even his position as the most popular and admired playwright in the world could not save him from the wrath of society, as he stood accused of gross indecency under England’s law that criminalized homosexual behavior. Wilde’s personal life was brought into the glare of public scrutiny during his trial, when he was humiliated, degraded, exiled from society, and sentenced to two years of forced labor. The seminar will discuss Wilde’s artistic persona within the context of Victorian sexuality and the sexual phobias of the time, the rise of aestheticism in music and the arts, and the cultural underpinnings that made Wilde’s trial such a scandalous event worldwide.

Monday, June 9, 2014

5:30-7:30 pm

CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave., Martin Segal Theatre, 1st floor

FREE ADMISSION

For more information: jmelo@gc.cuny.edu; 212-817-8606

Presented by the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation, CUNY, and the Ensemble for the Romantic Century in connection with ERC’s theatrical concert, The Trial of Oscar Wilde at Symphony Space, June 19-21.

To find out more about ERC’s theatrical concerts, visit our website: www.romanticcentury.org