Mark Ronan
Mark Ronan

Professor of Mathematics. Author of Symmetry and the Monster — a popular account of one of the great quests in mathematics. Specialist in Mesopotamian history and literature. Cold-water swimmer. Opera reviewer who once served on the Olivier Awards Committee.

Latest Theatre Reviews

Buxton Festival 2026

July 17, 2026

The first three days of the Buxton featured three very different operas: Franz Lehar’s Merry Widow on the opening night, followed by Verdi’s La Traviata and Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula. Each in its own way typifying three time periods, but the main attraction for me was the appearance of Polish-American coloratura soprano Alexandra Nowakowski as …

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Rheingold, Grange Park Opera, July 2026

July 8, 2026

Wagner’s Ring is well suited to summer music festivals, and Grange Park Opera in Surrey have now begun their own cycle this summer with a very effective Rheingold. The representation of the gods in costumes from the Classical world is arguably the best I’ve seen, and the conducting was excellent — see my review in …

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I Puritani, Royal Opera, July 2026

July 4, 2026

Set during the English Civil War, this typically Italian tale of love between opposing sides of a conflict involves a complex story, and requires a superb soprano in the main role of Elvira. Here we had Lisette Oropesa, who was terrific — see my review in The Article.

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Macbeth, Longborough, July 2026

July 3, 2026

What a terrific experience this was, seeing Verdi’s Macbeth in the Cotswolds with strong voices and excellent orchestral support. It was all so much more immediate than in a large opera house, and well worth the trip from London — see my review in The Article.

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Billy Budd, Glyndebourne, June 2026

June 30, 2026

This revival of Glyndebourne’s excellent production of Britten’s Billy Budd was well worth a second view after some dozen years. It gives a brilliant evocation of the intensity of life and action in 1797 on a British battleship, some years after mutinies at Spithead and on HMS Nore — see my review in The Article.

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Tristan and Isolde, Longborough, June 2026

June 21, 2026

Congratulations again to Longborough Festival Opera for their sensible production of one of Wagner’s greatest operas. They have eschewed the tendency to hire big name directors who want to present new concepts, and have relied on the superb understanding of Wagner’s operas by their musical director Anthony Negus as per my review in The Article.

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Latest Journalism

The brilliance of Babylonian Mathematics

The achievements of Babylonian mathematics are still poorly recognised, but the people in ancient Iraq treated numbers in the abstract way we do today, rather than as lengths, areas or volumes. This began before 2000 BC, and enabled them to develop mathematical formulas in the modern sense. In particular they not only knew what we call Pythagoras’s theorem but had a formula for producing side lengths for right-angled triangles, something the Greeks could not do well over a millennium and a half later. See my article in Engelsberg Ideas.

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How modern Numbers came to Europe

Our modern representation of numbers is the result of a complex process that can be traced back to the ancient Near East, via India and the Arab world — see my article in Engelsberg Ideas.

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The Pythagoras Myth

Contrary to popular belief, Pythagoras was by no means the discoverer of his eponymous theorem – it had already been known for over a thousand years. In popular perception however he became the source of the famous theorem about right-angled triangles: The Square on the Hypotenuse is equal to the Sum of the Squares on the Other Two Sides, a great result – serious mathematics indeed. But it has little to do with Pythagoras — see my article in Engelsberg Ideas.

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Feature

Symmetry and the Monster is the story of a mathematical quest that began two hundred years ago in revolutionary France, led to the biggest collaboration ever between mathematicians across the world, and revealed the ‘Monster’ – not monstrous at all, but a structure of exquisite beauty and complexity.

This book tells for the first time the fascinating story of the biggest theorem ever to have been proved. Mark Ronan graphically describes not only the last few decades of the chase, but also some of the more interesting byways, including my personal favourite, the one I called “Monstrous Moonshine”.

John H. Conway, von Neumann Chair of Mathematics, Princeton University

Opera on 3: for the BBC Radio 3 broadcast (on 19 November 2016) of Parsifal from this summer’s Bayreuth Festival, I was the guest with presenter Christopher Cook. We discussed the opera and its production, which I reviewed for the Daily Telegraph on 27 July 2016.

Truth and Beauty: The Hidden World of Symmetry

On the face of it, symmetry may seem simple, but diving beneath the surface reveals a whole new world. Over the last 100 years, the mathematical idea of symmetry has proved to be a guiding light for the world of physics. But what does a mathematician mean by symmetry? How does this link in with the world around us? And could it be the key to the mysterious ‘Theory of Everything’?

This was a BBC Radio programme on Symmetry in the Naked Scientists series. Here is the link