Pervinca Rista

Pervinca Rista is an interdisciplinary researcher in the arts and humanities. She holds numerous undergraduate and graduate degrees with High Honors in both the humanities and music from the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA), including a PhD in Romance Languages & Literatures in 2015 as the first ever double- doctorate student in the history of the university. In her time as a doctoral fellow Pervinca taught university-level courses in Italian language and culture, French language and culture, and Survey of Italian literature. Student evaluations of her classes consistently ranked her courses above the departmental average with markedly high student appreciation across disciplines. As a doctoral student Pervinca presented original research at the Renaissance Society of America and co-organized an international conference on Boccaccio’s Decameron. Her doctoral dissertation, Carlo Goldoni as Musical Reformer, explored the intersections of opera and comedy in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.

In 2016 Pervinca was awarded a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship by the European Commission for her interdisciplinary project “GoldOpera,” dedicated to uncovering new sources in the evolution of theatre and opera in XVIII Venice, reclaiming and restoring lost works. In addition to articles and conference proceedings in international journals, her first monograph, At the Origins of Classical Opera, was published by Peter Lang Press in 2018. She held public conferences at the Goldoni Museum and Library in Venice and was elected Marie Curie Ambassador during her time as a Marie Curie Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. She also created and led “Goldoni all’Opera,” a multidisciplinary initiative that brought newly-restored musical works to life through a series of lecture-concerts in collaboration with the Venice Conservatory of Music, the Venice University of Architecture IUAV, and Musei Civici Veneziani.

As a sought-after musician in recent years she has continued her work as an independent scholar, publishing a book chapter in Opera and Tragedy with Toronto University Press in 2024, and taking part in historical restoration projects both as a musician and researcher, most recently in Verona, Innsbruck, and Venice (planned for June 2026). Her PhD was granted full equivalency by the University of Verona such that she now also holds an Italian doctorate in Philology, Literature, and Performing Arts Studies to the fullest extent of the law.

Pervinca combines her passion for music history and philology with musical performance as a professional violinist, of which more on the previous page.