Roger Parker (born

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, 2 August 1951) is an English

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

and, since January 2007, has been Thurston Dart Professor of Music at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. His work has centred on

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

. Between 2006 and 2010, while Professor of Music at Gresham College, London, Parker presented four series of free public lectures, one example being "Verdi and Milan" in 2007 which is available on video. In addition to teaching, Parker has been active as joint editor in the preparation of

critical editions Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

of the work of 19th-century Italian composer

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style ...

for the Milan publishing house

Ricordi Ricordi may refer to: People *Giovanni Ricordi (1785–1853), Italian violinist and publishing company founder * Giulio Ricordi (1840–1912), Italian publisher and musician Music *Casa Ricordi, an Italian music publishing company established i ...

. He also acts as Repertory Consultant to the UK's specialised recording company,

Opera Rara Opera Rara is a London-based opera company and recording label which specialises in recording and performing forgotten operatic repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1970 by bel canto enthusiasts Patric Schmid and Don Whit ...

, which has commissioned performances and recordings of rare Donizetti operas such as ''

Belisario ''Belisario'' (''Belisarius'') is a ''tragedia lirica'' (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Luigi Marchionni's adaptation of play, ''Belisarius'', first staged in Munich in 182 ...

'' in 2012 and '' Les Martyrs'' in 2014. Additionally, Parker has presented talks on UK radio on aspects of opera, including his talk "Verdi 200: Viva Verdi" on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...

on 6 January and 13 October 2013.

Education and academic work

He studied at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

, first at Goldsmiths' College, and then at

from which he obtained his PhD in 1981. In 1982, he moved to

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where he was assistant professor and then associate professor. Returning to England to become a lecturer in music (later professor) and fellow of

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and acce ...

, in 1999 he became professor of music at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he was a fellow of St John's College. Between 2005 and 2006, he was the chair of the School of Arts and Humanities. Parker became the Visiting

Ernest Bloch Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer. Bloch was a preeminent artist in his day, and left a lasting legacy. He is recognized as one of the greatest Swiss composers in history. As well as producing music ...

Lecturer at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

in 2002 and, in 2007, he was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

Preparation of critical editions of operas

Roger Parker's focus has been in the area of Italian opera of the nineteenth century. For ten years he was founding co-editor (with

Arthur Groos Arthur B. Groos (born 5 February 1943 in Fullerton, California) is an American philologist, musicologist, medievalist and Germanist. Groos began teaching at Cornell University in 1973, held the Avalon Foundation Professorship in Humanities, and w ...

) of the ''Cambridge Opera Journal'', and he continues as General

Editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

of ''The Critical Edition of the Operas of Gaetano Donizetti'' published it Italy by

Casa Ricordi Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Ro ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

and in the United States by the University of Chicago Press under the auspices of the Fondazione Donizetti. His co-editor is Gabriele Dotto, who led Ricordi's editorial department from 1992 to 2001. Other critical editions of Donizetti's operas on which Parker has worked include '' Linda di Chamounix'' in 2007 as well as those titles which appear on the Donizetti Society's list of works completed by Parker alone, such as ''

Lucrezia Borgia Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Gover ...

'' (1998) and ''

Adelia ''Adelia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, subfamily Acalyphoideae. It is native to Latin America and the Caribbean, with one species extending northward into the southernmost part of Texas. The name is deri ...

''. Additionally, along with Dotto, he has co-authored the critical edition of '' Lucia di Lammermoor'' which was presented at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal ...

, London in 2003. Roger Parker is also credited as editor of the critical edition of Puccini's opera, '' Manon Lescaut'' published by Ricordi in 2013. A major revival of a never-completed Donizetti opera, '' Le duc d'Albe'', was given in 2012 by the

Vlaamse Opera The Vlaamse Opera (Flemish Opera) is an opera company in Belgium directed by Jan Vandenhouwe which operates in two different opera houses in two Flemish cities, the Vlaamse Opera Antwerp at Van Ertbornstraat 8 and the Vlaamse Opera Ghent at Schouwbu ...

from a critical edition prepared by Parker. He has written about the work involved in its preparation.

Involvement with performances

For the preparation, recording, and presentation of the Opera Rara recording of Donizetti's ''Belisario'' in 2012, it has been noted that the opera was "performed in the edition by Sir Mark Elder, Roger Parker and Jürgen Selk, based on the 2010 edition by Ottavio Sbragia." For that event, Parker coordinated and presented an afternoon-long public symposium on the opera. In a similar fashion, when Donizetti's ''Les Martyrs'' was presented by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London in November 2014, Roger Parker was part of an introductory panel which also included Dr Flora Willson (who prepared the critical edition) and author and Donizetti biographer Jonathan Keates.

Awards and appointments

He received the "Premio Giuseppe Verdi" in 1986, was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1986–87, and in 1991 was awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association. 2008 saw his election as

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # ...

, while, in 2014, he was appointed member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Music The Royal Swedish Academy of Music ( sv, Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien), founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden. At the time of its foundation, only one of its co-founder was a professional musician, Ferdin ...

Recent publications

* "Verdi the revolutionary? Let's separate fact from fiction", ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' (London), 7 October 2013 *

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...

, '' Manon Lescaut'', Milan: Ricordi, 2013. Editor, critical edition. * ''A History of Opera'' (with Carolyn Abbate), London: Penguin Books, Ltd.; New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2012 * ''The New Grove Guide to Verdi and his Operas'', Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 * ''Remaking the Song: Operatic Visions and Revisions from Handel to Berio'', Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006 * "The Opera Industry", in Jim Samson, ed., ''The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 87–117 * "Philippe and Posa Act II: The Shock of the New", ''Cambridge Opera Journal'', 14/1-2 (2002), pp. 133–47 *

, ''

Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali ''Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali'' (''Conventions and Inconveniences of the Stage''), also known as ''Viva la mamma'' and ''Viva la Diva'', is a dramma giocoso, or opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written ...

'', in ''Le opere di Gaetano Donizetti''. Milan: Ricordi, 2002; vocal score, 2003. Joint editor of the critical edition with Anders Wiklund. * ''Pensieri per un maestro: Studi in onore di Pierluigi Petrobelli'', Turin: Einaudi, 2002. Joint editor with Stefano La Via

Personal life

Married to concert cellist Lynden Cranham, has three children and eight grandchildren.

References

Notes Sources
Prof. Roger Parker's past lectures on music
at Gresham College. Available as audio/video files and as transcripts. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
''Curriculum vitae'' of Roger Parker
published by The Academy of Europe on www.ae-info.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Roger 1951 births Living people Alumni of King's College London Cornell University faculty Academics of King's College London Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge British musicologists Opera scholarship Professors of Gresham College Professors of Music (Cambridge) Verdi scholars