Welcome to Opera on Film the web-site of British academic, writer, editor and researcher Paul Fryer.
Paul’s research interests are centred around the relationship between Opera, Opera Singers and the early (pre-sound) film industry. As well as publishing and lecturing widely on this area, he has also been involved in the restoration of several rare early films and has introduced screenings of these, and other similar films, internationally.
Paul retired as Associate Director of Research and Head of Research Degrees at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in the UK, in Summer 2018. He is now Visiting Professor in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at The University of Leeds (UK), where he is also Co-Director of The Stanislavsky Research Centre. In January 2019, he was appointed Visiting Professor in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at London South Bank University, and he is an Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of Arts and Digital Industries at The University of East London.
He is Founder and Consultant Editor of the journal Stanislavski Studies, co-convener of the international research project The S Word: Stanislavsky and the Contemporary Theatre, and Series Editor of the new book series Stanislavsky And (for Routledge/Taylor & Francis).
Paul’s published work includes the first English-language biography of Lina Cavalieri (McFarland), a new edition of the memoirs of Sergei Bertenson, In Hollywood with Nemirovich-Danchenko (Scarecrow Press), the first chronology of opera performances at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg (Edwin Mellon Press), Women in the Arts in the Belle Epoque: Essays on Influential Artists, Writers and Performers (McFarland), and the collection, Opera in the Media Age: Essays on Art, Technology and Popular Culture (also McFarland). Eleonora Duse and Cenere (Ashes): Centennial Essays, edited with Maria Pia Pagani, was published by McFarland in the Spring of 2017, and a further collection, The Composer on Screen, appeared in Spring 2018.
Paul worked with Anastasia Toros on the first English-language edition of a critical biography of Viktor Simov, Stanislavski’s principal stage designer at the Moscow Art Theatre, which was published by Routledge/Taylor and Francis in Spring 2020. He collaborated with Nesta Jones on a new edited collection of essays Clive Barker and his Legacy: Theatre Workshop and Theatre Games (Methuen Drama/Bloomsbury, March 2022), and edited a new collection of essays for McFarland, Victorian Blockbusters, exploring smash hit theatre productions staged between 1850 and 1910, published in 2024.
If you would like to find out more, please visit the following pages:
BIOGRAPHY – PUBLICATIONS – PROJECTS – PROGRAMMES
Contact: e.mail paul@paulfryer.me.uk
