Daniel Snowman
Verdi and Victoria: Two of a Kind
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Summary
Daniel Snowman talks about Queen Victoria’s love of opera and of the many parallels between her own life and interests and those of the greatest Italian opera composer of her day, Giuseppe Verdi, both of whom died within a week of each other in January 1901, two octogenarians widely revered as the embodiments of their respective nations. Drawing on a rich multiplicity of historical images, Daniel introduces the overlapping operatic worlds of the two “V’s” against a background of the wider cultural history of their respective nations.
Daniel Snowman
Daniel Snowman is a social and cultural historian. Born in London to a Jewish family in 1938 and educated at Cambridge and Cornell, Daniel became a lecturer at the University of Sussex and went on to work for many years at the BBC as senior producer of radio features and documentaries. A senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London), his many books include a social history of opera and a study of the cultural impact of the ‘Hitler Emigrés’ and, most recently, his memoir “Just Passing Through: Interactions with the World 1938-2021”.