Pierpaolo Polzonetti, Jan and Beta Popper Professor of Music, has been receiving media attention for his new book Feasting and Fasting in Opera: From Renaissance Banquets to the Callas Diet (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Recently he discussed the book on BBC Radio’s “Music Matters: Art centres, Giovanni Antonini, Opera and Food.”  

The book is getting coverage in TLS (The Times Literary Supplement), in a book review by Larry Wolff, and Library Journal called the work “a fascinating study.”

In the book Polzonetti explores how convivial culture shaped the birth of opera and operagoing rituals until the mid-nineteenth century, when eating and drinking at the opera house were still common. Through analyses of convivial scenes in operas, the book also shows how the consumption of food and drink, and sharing or the refusal to do so, define characters’ identity and relationships.

To listen to Polzonetti’s interview, visit the BBC Radio website. The author appears at 15:30.