Forum Antiquum Lecture Spring 2023: The Role of Action in Historical Oratory
- Date
- Thursday 20 April 2023
- Time
- Series
- Forum Antiquum Lectures Series Spring 2023
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 123
In this lecture, João Carlos Santos and João Luís Paixão will contrast current prejudices concerning the use of actio in modern political speech with classical and early modern conceptions on the matter. They will discuss it both historically and philosophically, but also give some practical examples with historical speeches enacted by themselves, using acting techniques extracted from classical and early modern sources. They will compare a "historical" and a modern performance of Brutus's Speech from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and discuss the role of delivery in Plato's dialogue on Rhetoric, "Phaedrus".
João Luís Paixão is a baritone and researcher specialized in Early Music singing and historical acting. Since 2014, he has acted, coached, and staged in several opera and melodrama productions in The Netherlands and abroad. He is a PhD-applicant at the University of Amsterdam, conducting an artistic research on facial expression on the 18th-century stage. João Luís is an active member of the Dutch Historical Acting Collective, and he teaches at the Conservatories in The Hague and Utrecht.
João Carlos Santos is a musician and researcher devoted to historical practices of musical performance, musical composition and declamation. With different ensembles he performs music from the 15th to the 19th Centuries with different historical models of transverse flutes. He is currently a PhD Candidate at the Academy of Performing Arts at Leiden University where he researches the relationship between 18th-century acting techniques and musical practices. At the Royal Conservatory, The Hague, he teaches classes related to historical performance practice, music theory and music philosophy.
Feel free to join us for drinks after the lecture at De Keyzer, Kaiserstraat 2-4, 2311 GR Leiden
Registration for the lecture is not necessary, but if you would like to join us for dinner please let us know as soon as possible by sending an e-mail to h.b.de.boer@hum.leidenuniv.nl.