Film—Wilde in New York

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A New Video Documentary by Erik Ryding

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From Quill Classics comes a new full length video documentary written and directed by Erik Ryding: Wilde in New York.

Although Oscar Wilde is mostly associated with London at his zenith as a playwright, New York City also deserves a special place in his history. It was in New York, in fact, that his first two plays—Vera and The Duchess of Padua—had their world-premiere performances. During his yearlong tour of the United States in 1882, when he was a little-known poet associated with the comic character Bunthorne in Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera Patience, he sojourned in New York several times, establishing important social and artistic connections. Prompting newspaper stories wherever he went, he returned to Europe a genuine celebrity.

The film, tracing Wilde through New York and beyond, features the voice of Wilde biographer, Matthew Sturgis, as Oscar Wilde; together with new and original recordings of period music by Rodrigo Espina, Étienne Goepp, Christina Kay, Howard Lew, Randall Love, Rebecca Pechefsky, Erik Ryding, Mitchell Vines, John Taylor Ward, and Melanie Williams; and for good measure, the video ends with a segment on the streets of New York City with my good self visiting some of Oscar’s haunts.

© John Cooper, 2024.

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Bio: Erik Ryding

Erik Ryding is a confirmed Wildean having taught Wilde as an English professor at Barnard College of Columbia University. He is currently engaged in writing, directing, and producing historical videos; he is active musically as a classical lutenist; and has authored of a biography of the German conductor Bruno Walter.

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See also:

Carroll Beckwith (article by Erik Ryding and John Cooper)

John Singer Sargent and Music (video by Erik Ryding)

The Gilded Gentleman (interview with John Cooper)

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