Robert Ignatius Letellier (born 1953, in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) is a

cultural historian Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these gr ...

and academic, specialising in the history of music, Romantic literature and the Bible. He teaches at the

Maryvale Institute Maryvale Institute is a college of further and higher education, an International Catholic Distance-Learning College for Catechesis, Theology, Philosophy and Religious Education formerly based in Old Oscott, Great Barr, Birmingham Birmin ...

and the

Institute of Continuing Education The University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) is a department of University of Cambridge, the University of Cambridge that provides continuing education programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, ranging from unde ...

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Biography

Letellier has ten degrees in a range of subjects, including English, history, philosophy, and scripture. He has a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(PhD) degree in English Romanticism from the

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (, ), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university in Salzburg, Salzburg municipality, Salzburg (federal state), Salzburg State, ...

, and a

Doctor of Sacred Theology The Doctor of Sacred Theology (, abbreviated STD), also sometimes known as Professor of Sacred Theology (, abbreviated STP), is the final theological degree in the pontifical university system of the Catholic Church, being the ecclesiastical equ ...

(STD) degree in Scripture from the

Pontifical Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private university, private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyo ...

. He teaches music, literature and cultural history at the

. Letellier has published more than one hundred articles and books on subjects including the Bible, eighteenth and nineteenth century novels, especially the works of

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

, and 19th-century music. He is particularly noted for scholarship on the life and works of the composer

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart and Richard Wa ...

. Letellier's four-volume translation of the composer's diaries has been cited as "the most important work on the composer to be published in English to date". He has also published several studies of the composer's operas and other works which have played an important part in the revaluation of Meyerbeer, the most popular composer of the 19th century, whose works fell into almost complete neglect in the 20th but are now being rediscovered.

Select bibliography

As editor and translator: * As author: * ''The English Novel, 1660-1700: An Annotated Bibliography'', Greenwood Publishing Group 1997. *''The Operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer'', Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 2006. . *''The Ballets of Ludwig Minkus'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008. . *''An Introduction to the Dramatic Works of Giacomo Meyerbeer: Operas, Ballets, Cantatas, Plays'', Routledge 2008. *''Opera-Comique: A Sourcebook'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010. . *''Daniel-François-Esprit Auber: The Man and His Music'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010. . * ''Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots: An Evangel of Religion and Love'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2014.. *''Operetta: A Sourcebook I and II'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015. . *''The Bible in Music'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2017. . *''Giacomo Meyerbeer: A Critical Life and Iconography'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2018. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letellier, Robert 1953 births Living people People from Durban Meyerbeer scholars South African literary critics 20th-century South African historians 20th-century South African male writers 21st-century South African historians 21st-century South African male writers Rhodes University alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of Salzburg alumni Academics of the Institute of Continuing Education South African Roman Catholic priests Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Pontifical Biblical Institute alumni South African biblical scholars Roman Catholic biblical scholars