2011-2012 - The Italian Academy - Columbia University

dynamics of how a perceiver takes on an aesthetic stance or attitude.
In other words, to understand the dynamics of how we become
“beholders” and how that changes the neurological response and impact
of the perceived aesthetic event or object. At the most general
level, the hypothesis is that the neurological response is strongly
and dynamically influenced by the context. A joint article with David
Freedberg on this topic is in the works.
My recent Spring seminar talk was entitled “The Illusion of
Domestic Bliss—on the Dynamics of Relational Minds.” I addressed
how empirical findings can help us understand the basic dynamics
of our embodied relational minds—and how can this help us rethink
the divide not only between inner and outer but also between
nature and culture.
In short, I want to express my enormous gratitude to the staff,
board and contributors to the Academy for this life-changing opportunity.
Maria Brincker takes up a new position as assistant professor of philosophy
at University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Mauro Calcagno
During the academic year that I was fortunate to spend in the
wonderfully lively intellectual environment of the Italian Academy,
I worked on my second book project. My first book, From Madrigal
to Opera: Monteverdi’s Staging of the Self, published by University of
California Press, did indeed come out during the Spring semester
(in the Fall I was thus able to correct the final proofs in a timely way,
and compile the index). In it I discuss the operas of composer Claudio
Monteverdi (1567–1643) both as they have been transmitted to
us (scores and librettos) and as they are staged today in modern
opera houses.
In the current project I focus instead only on the latter aspect—the
contemporary stagings—expanding the chronological and
geographical scope to cover productions of operas from Monteverdi
to Handel, passing through Cavalli and Lully. I discuss not so much
the operas as such but how today’s directors stage them according
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