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Julia Grella
Risorgimento Project

"Victorian Italians: 'Social Evenings' and Salon Music in the Rossettis' London"

Queen Victoria was a knowledgeable connoisseur of Italian opera and song, and, with her encouragement, under her reign the musical salon proliferated as a form of popular entertainment. In bourgeois households, music performed at home also became an important element in the socialization of young women and the self-expression of the individual. Italian composers were warmly received (though the same cannot always be said of their less-cultured compatriots), and Italian vocal music and singing style were strongly influential on English drawing room music and the creation of a late-Victorian aesthetic sensibility. Mezzo-soprano Julia Grella will perform examples from this repertoire, with the assistance of pianist Anna Stoytcheva, cellist Lisa Wright, and tenor Ed Lyon.