Insight: Professor Anthony DelDonna
If you could choose a famous person to join you in your research or your projects, who would it be?
I would love to experience and "hear" the eighteenth century through the eyes and ears of J. S. Bach as a companion.
What is your favorite thing about Washington, DC?
The wide variety of artistic experiences available here.
What is your favorite book?
"The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri
If a spaceship landed in front of your office right now, would you get in?
Certainly!
What would you be doing if you weren’t a professor at Georgetown University?
I would still be teaching music, whether for a school or private lessons.
What three words would the people closest to you use to describe you?
Dedicated, passionate, funny
Feature Story
Web of Music: Professor Anthony DelDonna and the Culture of Opera
Dr. Anthony DelDonna studies music with the eyes of a historian, an artist, and a philosopher. As assistant professor of music in Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts, he teaches and researches from the perspective that music cannot truly be understood unless it is studied in its contemporary context...
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Student Profile: Suria Bahadue
The only opera great that Suria Bahadue knew of when she enrolled in Professor DelDonna’s Opera History course was Beethoven—thanks to the dog from the 1992 movie of the same name. A Georgetown University junior with a double major in Biology and History, as well as a time-consuming commitment to the university’s softball team, Bahadue might not have known much about opera history before taking DelDonna’s class. She enrolled, however, with an aim to change that.
Student Profile: Matthew Sheptuck
Georgetown University junior Matthew Sheptuck has completed two music classes with Professor DelDonna as part of the curriculum for his American Studies major. However, in enrolling in Musical on Stage & Screen, and Traditional and Popular Music of America, Sheptuck was interested not only in the many connections drawn between cultural and musical history, but also in the new perspective on music the courses gave him.