Dr Tamsin Alexander
Staff details
Dr Tamsin Alexander completed her PhD on an AHRC-funded place at the University of Cambridge under Prof. Marina Frolova-Walker. Her research there explored the transnational spread of Russian opera in the nineteenth century, focusing particularly on Prague, London and Nice. Most recently, her work has been published in Cambridge Opera Journal and Music & Letters. She is now embarking on a new project on lighting technologies in nineteenth-century London, considering the ways in which lighting shaped listening experiences in the theatre, concert hall and the home.
Academic qualifications
PhD, Selwyn College, Cambridge (2010-14)
MPhil, Selwyn College, Cambridge (2008-9)
BMus, King’s College, London (2005-8)
Teaching
Soviet Music and Politics (Level 3); Russian Music in Context: Glinka to Stravinsky (Level 2); Romanticism and its Legacy (Level 2); Advanced Topics in Music History (Level 3); Western Art Music: 900-1900 (Level 1); Aesthetics, Meaning and Culture (Level 2); Performance Styles and Contexts (Level 2); Research Essay; Dissertation.
Areas of supervision
Nineteenth-century music and musical culture in Europe
Opera
Russian and Soviet music
Current PhD students
Evgeniya Kondrahina
Adam Nee
Catherine Hutchinson
Magdalini Nikolaidou
Research Interests
Cultural history; nineteenth-century musical culture; opera; transnationalism and cosmopolitanism; reception studies; music and politics; Russia; France; Britain; Czech lands; sensory history; music and technology
Publications
Book Section
'An “Extraordinary Engagement”: A Russian Opera Company in Britain, 1888’
Alexander, Tamsin. 2012. 'An “Extraordinary Engagement”: A Russian Opera Company in Britain, 1888’. In: Anthony Cross, ed. A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture. Open Book Publishers.
Article
'Illuminating Gustavus the Third and the Art of Spectacle in 1830s London'
Alexander, Tamsin. 2017. 'Illuminating Gustavus the Third and the Art of Spectacle in 1830s London'. Cambridge Opera Journal, 29(1), pp. 33-52. ISSN 0954-5867
Review: 'Wagner in Russia, Poland and the Czech Lands: Musical, Literary, and Cultural Perspectives, ed. by Stephen Muir and Anastasia Beiina-Johnson'
Alexander, Tamsin. 2016. Review: 'Wagner in Russia, Poland and the Czech Lands: Musical, Literary, and Cultural Perspectives, ed. by Stephen Muir and Anastasia Beiina-Johnson'. Music and Letters, 97(2), pp. 351-353. ISSN 0027-4224
Review: 'A Musician Divided: Andre Tchaikowsky in his own words'
Alexander, Tamsin. 2015. Review: 'A Musician Divided: Andre Tchaikowsky in his own words'. Music & Letters, 96(3), pp. 491-494.
'Decentralising via Russia: Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar in Nice, 1890'
Alexander, Tamsin. 2015. 'Decentralising via Russia: Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar in Nice, 1890'. Cambridge Opera Journal, 27(01), pp. 35-62. ISSN 0954-5867
'Tchaikovsky’s Yevgeny Onegin in Britain, 1892–1906: Slipping between High and Low, Future and Past, East and West'
Alexander, Tamsin. 2015. 'Tchaikovsky’s Yevgeny Onegin in Britain, 1892–1906: Slipping between High and Low, Future and Past, East and West'. Musiktheorie, 3, pp. 223-234. ISSN 0177-4182
'Too Russian for British Ears: La Vita per lo Czar at Covent Garden, 1887'
Alexander, Tamsin. 2014. 'Too Russian for British Ears: La Vita per lo Czar at Covent Garden, 1887'. Tekst. Kniga. Knigoizdaniye (Text. Book. Publishing), 2(6), pp. 30-48.