Symposium | Anthony at the Clearing: Opera’s Death Drive

Held concurrently with the performances of Anthony’s Death, the international symposium Anthony at the Clearing: Opera’s Death Drive will feature a keynote speech by the eminent American philosopher Joan Copjec as well as papers by important musicologists, psychoanalysts and cultural theorists. The symposium is organised by the musicologist Paris Konstantinidis.

If the narrative of Anthony’s Death takes place in a clearing, a space where, according to Martin Heidegger, Truth is manifested, then what is the Truth of this opera? What is the relationship between Candy Candy and Slavoj Žižek, and why is the notorious Slovenian philosopher proud of this work? Maybe none of these questions will be answered in the symposium titled Anthony at the Clearing: Opera’s Death Drive. What is certain, however, is that a select team of important representatives of the fields of musicology, psychoanalysis, philosophy and cultural studies from Greece, Europe and the Americas will appear at the GNO Alternative Stage in order to generate vivid dialogue on the issues raised by Kharálampos Goyós’ new work. A postmodern or neo-modernist opera, Anthony’s Death sets out to relaunch art in the public space, not as a simple handmaiden of dominant or neglected values, but as a spark of a public discourse with no predetermined ending. On 25 and 26 November, the Alternative Stage welcomes you to a clearing of your own!

Friday 25 November

Symposium opening (17.30)

Arrival (17.30-17.50)

Greeting address (17.50-18.00)

First session (18.00-19.20)

“The Sky Is Beautiful in Chernobyl”: The Philosopher’s Song

Moderator Petros Vouvaris

• Mauro Fosco Bertola (University of Tübingen, Germany)

Opera and the Sublime in the 21st Century

• Costis Demertzis (PhD in Musicology, Greece)

“How the Hell Are We Going to Find Something When We Don’t Even Know How to Call It?”: The Study of Names, Corporeity and the Feminine as Kantian Sublime in Kharálampos Goyós’ Anthony’s Death

• Nicholas Till (Professor of Opera and Music Theatre, University of Sussex, UK; Pierre Audi Chair, University of Amsterdam)

Listening Awry: Anthony’s Death and Opera’s Second Death; Žižekian Takes on the End of Nature and the Logic of Fantasy

• Discussion

Reception – Coffee (19.20-20.00)

Performance: Anthony’s Death (20.30)

Saturday 26 November

Second session (17.30-18.50)

“Dragged Into Death and All That”: Opera on the Couch

Moderator Mauro Fosco Bertola

• Ludovica Grassi (psychoanalyst MD, full member of Italian Society of Psychoanalysis & International Psychoanalytical Association)

First the Music, Then the Words

• Daniel Röhe (psychotherapist PhD, Brazil)

Anthony’s Death: Clinical Context and Its Implications

• Petros Vouvaris (Associate Professor, Department of Music Science & Art, University of Macedonia, Greece)

Intertextual Musical Citations and the Hystericisation of Music(ologic)al Discourse

• Discussion

Break – Coffee (18.50-19.10)

Third session (19.10-20.10)

“In Those Days, I Played and Replayed Him on the VCR”: Media Culture, Postmodernity and Repetition

Moderator Paris Konstantinidis

• Akis Gavriilidis (writer & translator, Greece, Brussels)

The God Abandons Antonio: “High” Art Looks at “Low” Art – And Vice Versa

• Kostis Stafylakis (visual artist & art theorist, Athens School of Fine Arts)

Thoughts on the Cultural and Political Status of the Red One: From Jordan Peele to Kharálampos Goyós

• Discussion

Break – Coffee (20.10-20.30)

Keynote speech (20.30-21.15)

• Joan Copjec (Professor of Modern Culture & Media, Brown University, USA)

Head Over Heels: On Sexual Tendency

Round table discussion (21.15)