Thursday, January 8, 2009



Puccini Madame Butterfly, Viss d'arte Downloads

Download Puccini's Madame Butterfly (Che tua madre dovra, with the Delphi Ensemble) and Tosca: Vissi d'arte (with Peter Nilsson at the piano).

To download files, Right click on the link and click on "save as"

To register for The Passion's of Puccini Lecture-Performance, contact the UCT EMS Office.

Giacomo Puccini was the most important composer of Italian opera after Verdi. He wrote in the verismo style, a counterpart to the movement of Realism in literature and a trend that favored subjects and characters from everyday life for opera. On his often commonplace settings Puccini lavished memorable melodies and lush orchestration. It was around the turn of the twentieth century that he reached his artistic zenith, composing in succession his three most popular and effective operas, La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.

Recreation of Chris Barnard's heart Transplant



Recreation of Christian Barnard's famous December 3, 1967 first Human Heart Transplant performed on Louis Washkansky at Groote Schuur Hospital. Created by Animo Venice High School students Zach Manpearl, Rex Mulvaney, Luis Barrara, and Jose Romero.

Groote Schuur Hospital (also known as "GSH" or, colloquially, "Grotties") is a large, government-funded, teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It was founded in 1938 and is famous for being the institution where the first human heart transplant took place, conducted by University of Cape Town-educated surgeon Christiaan Barnard on the patient Louis Washkansky.

Groote Schuur is the chief academic hospital of the University of Cape Town's medical school, providing tertiary care and instruction in all the major branches of medicine. The hospital underwent major extension in 1984 when two new wings were added; the old main building now mainly houses several academic clinical departments as well as a museum about the first heart transplant.

The hospital is an internationally-acclaimed research institution and is world-renowned for its trauma unit, anaesthesiology and internal medicine departments. Groote Schuur attracts many visiting medical students, residents and specialists each year who come to gain experience in various fields. As at December 2006 the hospital employed over 500 doctors, 1300 nurses and 250 allied health professionals.

Groote Schuur is Dutch for 'Great Barn' and is named after the original Groote Schuur estate laid out by Dutch settlers when the city of Cape Town was founded in the 17th Century.


To attend the lecture series Groote Schuur 1938 - 2008: Historical Perspectives contact the UCT EMS office.

Neo Muyanga Video



Neo Muyanga will be giving the lecture A-Capella Music of South Africa. To register for the course contact the EMS Office

SS Course 2009: The Liberal Predicament

Course 223
Date: 26–30 January
Time: 11.15 am
Full Price: R270,00 Staff: R135,00 Reduced: R70,00

The Liberal Predicament
Presented by Dr Kenneth Hughes, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town

With the fall of communism and the fraying of conservatism, it seems that the only one of the three traditional major Western political philosophies left standing is liberalism. Yet, in many parts of the world, liberalism is also not in good shape. Was it ever different? The great liberal thinkers were often ‘men in dark times’. This course will attempt to throw some light on the liberal predicament by sketching aspects of the history of liberal thought and the development of liberal politics in a number of different countries.

LECTURE TITLES
  1. From Locke to The Federalist: liberalism and the Enlightenment in the 18th century.
  2. de Tocqueville to Halévy: liberalism under the shadow of the French Revolution.
  3. Max Weber and the tragedy of Germany’s lost liberalism.
  4. Liberalism takes wings: Scandinavia, Italy, Spain and the Americas.
  5. Dilemmas of contemporary liberalism: liberalism, socialism and nationalism at home and abroad.
Recommended reading
  • da Ruggiero, G. History of European Liberalism. Translated by Collingwood, R.G. Beacon Press, 1964.
  • Brogan, H. Alexis de Tocqueville. Profile, 2006.
  • Stern, F. The Failure of Illiberalism. Columbia University Press, 1992.
  • Merquior, J.G. Liberalism, Old and New. Twayne Publishers, 1991.
  • Lipton, M. Liberals, Marxists and Nationalists. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
  • de Tocqueville, A. The Ancien Régime and the French Revolution. Translated [from the French] by Stuart Gilbert; with an introduction by Hugh Brogan. Fontana, 1966.

SS Course 2009: From Bismarck to Hitler: The Rise and Fall of a Superpower

Course 211
Date: 26–30 January
Time: 9.15 am
Full Price: R270,00 Staff: R135,00 Reduced: R70,00

From Bismarck to Hitler: The Rise and Fall of a Superpower
Presented by Christopher Danziger, formerly at UCT and Durham, now freelance lecturer at Oxford and Warwick, United Kingdom

Germany is widely considered the most prosperous state in Europe. In the space of 30 years it twice took on and almost defeated the whole world. Yet the reality is that in 1865, Germany, later to be considered a superpower, was a powerless collection of small states. In 1945 it was shattered and divided into four zones of occupation. The period of German paramount power lasted for less than 80 years. Why did such a giant lie sleeping for so long? And why was such a giant so comprehensively slain? Indeed, has the giant been slain, or is it merely lying dormant?
This course aims to familiarise students with the creation of a German national state in the 1860s, and its attempt to dominate the world between 1914 and 1945. Students will be encouraged to question what constitutes a superpower and to decide what, if any, are its limits.

LECTURE TITLES

  1. Before Bismarck: political powerlessness.
  2. Bismarck and the creation of a superpower.
  3. From Bismarck to Versailles: testing the limits.
  4. The Weimar Republic: acceptance and denial.
  5. Hitler: the shattering of an illusion.

Recommended reading

  • Carr, W. A History of Germany 1818–1990. Hodder, 1991.
  • Craig, G. Germany 1866–1945. Oxford University Press, 1980.
  • Kershaw, I. Hitler: Profiles of Power. Longmans, 2000. (Or any other book by Iain Kershaw.)
  • Taylor, A.J.P. Bismarck. Hamish Hamilton, 1985.

SS Course 2009: Recent Problems in Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Course 192
Date: Wednesday 21 January
Time: 1.00 pm
Full Price: R54,00 Staff: R27,00 Reduced: R14,00
***Tickets are on sale at the door only if seats are available: R60,00; staff & reduced (on production of cards): R32,00.

Recent Problems in Nuclear Non-Profileration
Presented by David Wolfe, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico and Director, Oppenheimer Institute for Science and International Co-operation.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed 40 years ago by over 170 nations. It requires adherence to a basic set of rules designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. It requires the five nations who have weapons (the USA, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China) to reduce their numbers and eventually disarm. Further, it requires non-weapons states to permit United Nations access to all sites and it expects access to information where any fissionable material is used, such as in reactors. Although it is not perfect, the treaty has worked relatively well in the past. Changes and updates are now urgently needed.

This lunch-time lecture aims to convince students of the severe threat to humankind that nuclear weapons represent. It will discuss their dangers, the advantages and disadvantages of the NPT, and the ease of constructing a weapon given the correct material. Since gaining access to fissile material is a core concern, it will explore the problems of enrichment of uranium, using Iran as an example.