Dr Francesco Milella
- School: School of Music
- Mentor: Dr Tomás McAuley
Opera, Enlightenment and empire in late-colonial Mexico
My project explores the impact of Italian opera in late-colonial Mexico and its intersection with local Enlightened debates (1750-1800). It analyses how the reception and reinterpretation of Italian operas in late-colonial Mexico became interconnected with local Enlightenment debates as they were received by cultural elites of the time and their cosmopolitan imagination. This project predates the globalisation of opera – usually situated at the beginning of the nineteenth century (1820s-1830s) – to fill a lacuna in the history of the circulation of opera in the Atlantic with forgotten information about transatlantic routes drawn by companies and operas in that period. At the same time it investigates the connection between the operatic stage and philosophical debates in a context that has been for too long left at the margins of the Western world.
Contact details:
Email: (opens in a new window)francesco.milella@ucd.ie