Dr. Mike Reynolds: „A Bridge Between Nations“

Einladung zu einem Vortrag in englischer Sprache

Harry Kessler’s Life as an Emblem of Anglo-German Social
and Cultural Discourse, 1880 – 1914
Monday, 7th March 2016 at 7 pm
RüKONTOR (5. Etage), Rüttenscheider Str. 144, 45131 EssenHarry Graf Kessler was a highly mobile person. Born in Paris, educated in France, England and Germany, he moved and operated at the highest levels of each and every society he got to know. Financially independent from an early age, Kessler concentrated on those aspects of life that seemed to him most important: art, theatre, opera, fine books, but above all the establishment of relationships and exchange of ideas with notable Europeans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In his talk on Kessler, Mike Reynolds will examine his activities as a bridge-builder, as a conduit for new ideas. Was he foolish or visionary in bringing the art of Rodin and other modernists to the court at Weimar? Was he the ambassador to London that Germany never (but should have) had? Can we regard him as a true precursor of the modern European and what does his magnum opus – his Diary – reveal of his appreciation of the understanding between European nations at the time and in the future?

Born in 1945, Mike Reynolds was schooled in Devon and educated further at the Sorbonne, Paris and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he read French, German and Drama. He graduated in 1967 and joined the Diplomatic Service with postings in Düsseldorf, Budapest, Paris and Berlin, as well as long periods working in the Middle East. Mike took early retirement from government service in 1995 to become co-founder of a commercial intelligence organization. After ten years he embarked on a second degree, graduating with First Class Honours in Opera Studies from Manchester University in 2008. Mike then embarked on his PhD at Goldsmiths College, London, being awarded his doctorate in 2014 for his thesis on “The Theatrical Vision of Count Harry Kessler and its Impact on the Strauss-Hoffmannsthal Partnership”. For many years Mike was opera critic for the website “musicalcriticism.com”. His forthcoming book is called ”Creating Der Rosenkavalier – from Chevalier to Cavalier” and explores the role played by Harry Kessler in creating Der Rosenkavalier.

Mike is married, with three children and four grandchildren. He and his wife live in a
converted flax mill in Suffolk.

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von
Park Hotel