Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk — or should that be Medea?

Helen Lovatt reflects on intertextuality and a trip to the opera (and continues to see Argonauts everywhere). Last week I experienced the theatrical pounding of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in a sensational and vivid production by the ENO. Get a flavour of it on youtube here. I do like a text that puts its …

Classical Consolations

Undergraduate Juliet O’Brien finds solace in the classical sections of Hallward Library. Even in an age where we have all sort of comforts at our disposal, we are nowhere near achieving universal happiness. I know I’m not the only one who gets anxious in the face of coursework deadlines and exams. And for those of …

The Spirit and the Argonauts Myth

Helen Lovatt finds some surprising references to classical Greek myth in The Spirit, a recent film by Frank Miller (author of 300)… When I sat down to watch a film the other night, I was happily anticipating a complete break from work. But perhaps it should not surprise me to find The Spirit (2008), directed …

They might be Argonauts

One of the great things about working on Classics, and especially Classical Reception, is the enormous variety of material with which you can work. My current major research project is a history of the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. Thinking about how passing references to the Argonauts form the way we think about them, …