Symbol and Metaphor in Opera

Michael Trimble is Emeritus Professor of Behavioural Neurology at University College London (UCL), UK. He has edited many books which deal with the interface between the brain, neurology and psychiatry, and has a special interest in the neuroscience of the emotions, and the limbic and autonomic nervous system. His more recent books include: The Soul in the Brain - the Cerebral Basis of Language, Art and Belief (2007); Why Humans Like to Cry - Tragedy Evolution and the Brain (2012); The Intentional Brain - Motion, Emotion and the development of Modern Neuropsychiatry (2016). He has a special interest in the evolutionary and emotional effects of music.

Robert Ignatius Letellier was educated in Grahamstown (South Africa), Cambridge (UK), Salzburg (Austria), Rome (Italy) and Jerusalem (Israel). He is a member of Trinity College Cambridge, the Maryvale Higher Institute of Religious Studies in Birmingham, and the Institute of Professional and Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, all UK. His publications number over 100 items, including books and articles on the early and Romantic novel (particularly the Gothic Novel and Sir Walter Scott), the Bible, history, and European culture. He has specialized in the Romantic opera, especially the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer, Fromental Halevy, Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber, Adolphe Adam, Adrien Boieldieu, Ferdinand Herold, the opera comique, the operetta, Ludwig Minkus and nineteenth century ballet.

Together the authors have published their comprehensive study of Sudden Death in Opera (CSP 2021).