Dr Rosamund Bartlett

We are delighted to welcome Rosamund Bartlett to our Day of Special Interest.  She is a writer, lecturer and translator whose work as a cultural historian ranges across the arts. She completed her doctorate at Oxford and is the author of several books, including biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, and a study of Wagner's influence in Russia. She is currently writing a history of the Russian avant-garde. Her new translation of Anna Karenina for Oxford World’s Classics was published to acclaim in 2014. She has written on art, music and literature for publications such as The Daily Telegraph and Apollo, and received commissions from institutions including the Royal Opera House, Tate UK, and the Salzburg Festival. Her lecturing work has taken her from the V&A and the National Theatre in London to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and she contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts on the BBC.

This day of lectures explores the art, architecture and symbolic significance of Russia's two great capitals: ancient, oriental Moscow, and modern, European St. Petersburg.  Both cities represent different aspects of the Russian soul, torn between East and West like the imperial emblem of the double-headed eagle, but vital to each other's existence.  As Nikolay Gogol wrote in 1836: “Moscow is feminine, Petersburg masculine... Petersburg likes to tease Moscow for her awkwardness and lack of taste.  Moscow reproaches Petersburg that he doesn't know how to speak Russian… Russia needs Moscow; St. Petersburg needs Russia…”

The day comprises three lectures - 

1. Holy Mother Moscow

2. Imperial St. Petersburg

3. Moscow and Petersburg: The Two Faces of Russia

The first session will start at 10.30 am prompt with the final session ending at around 3.00 pm.  The cost will be £35 to include morning coffee/tea, hot lunch and second cup of coffee/tea.  You may bring your own alcohol but there will be a corkage charge of £2.50 a bottle paid to the Westwoods Centre.