Collaborative Doctoral Award with the Royal Opera House

Together with Mr John Fulljames, Associate Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House (ROH), and Mr Alistair Roberts, the ROH’s Managing Director, Enterprises, Professor Chris Berry of the Department of Film Studies has won an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award. 

The "Opera Cinema" project will support incoming doctoral student Joseph Attard to research the ROH’s live opera broadcasts screened in cinemas around the world. It will test the hypothesis that “opera cinema” is not simply a diluted form of theatrical performance but an autonomous experience with its own distinct characteristics.

The project extends Professor Berry’s previous Leverhulme Trust-funded work on moving image screens in public spaces, and builds on Mr Attard’s MA thesis work on how cinephile audiences create cinema-like spaces and rituals when watching films at home. Mr Attard’s MA was also in Film Studies at King’s College London, and he shared the department’s Best MA Dissertation award for 2012-2013.