5th Transnational Opera Studies Conference (TOSC@Lisboa.2023)

5th Transnational Opera Studies Conference

Lisboa 6-8 July 2023

Following the success of the previous four meetings (tosc@bologna.2015, tosc@bern.2017, tosc@paris.2019, and tosc@bayreuth.2022), the fifth edition of the tosc@ conference will take place in Lisbon, at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, on 6-8 July 2023.

The event will be organized by the CESEM – Centre for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music, a research centre based at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, which focuses on the study of music and its relations with other arts, as well as with culture and society, and where opera, in its historical, formal and medial dimensions, has always figured as a prominent research topic.

The Programme Committee will consist of:

Giorgio Biancorosso (University of Hong Kong)

João Pedro Cachopo (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

Gabriela Cruz (University of Michigan)

Luísa Cymbron (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

Kordula Knaus (Universität Bayreuth)

Paulo Kühl (Universidade de Campinas)

Jelena Novak (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

Benjamin Walton (Cambridge University)

João Pedro Cachopo, Luísa Cymbron and Jelena Novak are also the conference organisers.

Call for Papers

The Programme Committee welcomes proposals in the following formats:

- individual papers (20 minutes long, with 10 minutes for discussion);

- themed sessions (three or four papers; the entire session should take 90 minutes and allow for at least 15 minutes of discussion; please note that the Committee reserves the right to accept one or several proposals on a separate basis even if the entire panel is not selected);

- roundtable sessions (up to six people, each giving a brief position paper; the entire session should take 90 minutes and allow for at least 15 minutes of discussion).

We invite submissions on any subject related to opera and other forms of musical and music theatre. Methodologies may be varied, traversing disciplines and perspectives: verbal text, music, drama, performance, interpretation, declamation, painting, scenography, dance, staging, stage technology, cinema, photography, video, television, radio, digital arts, as well as reception, historiography, economics, ecology, opera and society, opera and the media, opera and the other arts, etc.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Maria Callas’s birth and 65 years after her visit to Lisbon, proposals focusing on her career, performance practice, or the re-appropriation of her figure and legacy are encouraged. The same applies to those engaging the question of opera in a post-pandemic world, especially in connection to how digital media are transforming the ways of composing, performing and experiencing opera in the 21st century. Finally, given the important relationship between Portuguese and Brazilian musicologies, as well as CESEM's contribution to this dialogue, proposals addressing Portuguese-Brazilian themes, connected to Latin America, or more broadly on ‘opera beyond West’ are also welcome.

Preference will be given to proposals that explore questions and raise hypotheses, rather than simply offering descriptive accounts.

Proposals may be in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (although candidates should bear in mind that English will be the working language of the conference). They must include the following information:

- author’s full name;

- country and institution;

- e-mail address;

- paper title;

- abstract.

Abstracts should be prepared as follows:

- individual papers: maximum 350 words;

- themed sessions: a 250-word summary outlining the aims of the session and a 350 word abstract for each paper;

- roundtable sessions: a 250-word summary outlining the aims of the session, and a brief description of each position paper.

Abstracts should thus include all necessary information that will allow the Programme Committee to evaluate the paper’s quality and originality and its potential as an oral presentation.

Proposals must be submitted as attachments by email as a Word file (“.doc” or “.docx” – not “.pdf”) to: tosc@fcsh.unl.pt by 31 October 2022

Everyone submitting a proposal will be sent a confirmation email. If you do not receive a notification within seven days, please resend the proposal.

All abstracts will be anonymised before being evaluated by the Programme Committee. Do not to include any information in your abstract that could reveal your identity (such as “As I have shown in my earlier article…”).

All those who have submitted a proposal will be notified of the outcome by the beginning of February 2023.

Following acceptance by the Programme Committee, there will be an opportunity to revise abstracts before their publication in the conference programme.

Fees

As in other events of this kind, participants will be required to pay for themselves. Unfortunately, in these difficult times, with rising inflation rates, the registration fee will have to be higher than in previous editions of Tosc@. A special effort will be made with regard to students in order to reduce their registration fees. We hope to be able to establish the final registration fee (which will be announced on our website) before 31 October 2022.

The tosc@lisboa.2023 Award

The Programme Committee will offer an award for the best paper presented by a junior scholar at the conference. All those who started their doctoral research in 2010 or later and whose papers are accepted for the conference, will be eligible. Those who wish to be considered for this award must submit the final version of their paper to the Programme Committee Those who wish to be considered for this award must submit the final version of their paper to the Programme Committee (accompanied by any musical examples, images, etc.) to tosc@fcsh.unl.pt by 31 May 2023. The tosc@lisboa.2023 award will be announced at the end of the event. The winner will be invited to submit the oral presentation as a full article for publication in a prominent international peer-reviewed journal, and will be invited to present a new paper at a plenary session of the sixth edition of tosc@.

Calendar

- 1 August 2022: Launch of the CFP

- 31 October 2022: Deadline for submissions

- Early February 2023: Announcement of the results

- 31 May 2023: Deadline for submissions to the tosc@lisboa.2023 award

- 31 May-20 June 2023: Evaluation of young researchers’ papers

- 6-8 July 2023: tosc@lisboa.2023