Opera, exoticism and visual culture

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Where to find it

Music Library

Call Number
ML1700 .O6687 2015
Status
Available

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Summary

As a uniquely hybrid form of artistic output, straddling music and theatre and high and popular culture, opera offers vast research possibilities not only in the field of music studies but also in the fields of media and cultural studies. Using the exotic legacy of the fin-de-siècle as its primary lens, this volume explores the shifting relationships between the multimedia genre of opera and the rapidly changing world of visual cultures. It also examines the changing aesthetics of opera in composition and performance and historical (dis)continuity, including the postcolonial era. The book comprises eleven interdisciplinary essays by scholars from eight countries, researching in music, theatre, literature, film and media studies, as well as a special contribution by opera director Sir Jonathan Miller. The book begins with an examination of operatic exoticism in various cultural contexts, such as French, Latin American and Arabic culture. The next sections focus on the most beloved figures in opera performance - Salome, Madame Butterfly and Aida - and performances of these operas through history. Further interpretations of the operas in film and new media are then considered. In the final section, Sir Jonathan Miller reflects on the 'afterlife' of opera.

Contents

  • List of Figures p. ix
  • Introduction p. 1 Hyunseon Lee
  • Part I Confronting Distant Cultures: Operatic Distances and Differences p. 11
  • Caught in Transition: Exoticism in Gaspare SpontiniÆs Fernand Cortès p. 13 Maria Birbili
  • Daniel Catán's Butterflies; or, The Opera House in the Jungle p. 31 Roberto Ignacio Dís
  • The Reversal of Exoticism: Ahmed EssyadÆs Le Collier des Ruses [The Necklace of Tricks] p. 53 Hervé Lacombe
  • Part II Exotic Ladies and Fin-de-Siècle Visual Culture p. 71
  • Eroticizing Antiquity: Madame Mariquita, Régina Badet and the Dance of the Exotic Greeks from Stage to Popular Press p. 31 Roberto Ignacio Diaz
  • Loïe Fuller and Salome: The Unveiling of a Myth p. 93 Clair Rowden
  • The Kawakami Troupe in Early Twentieth-Century Europe in the Context of Media History p. 111 Yûjl Nawata
  • Part III Performing the Other
  • Global Butterfly: Visual Exoticism, or its Reversal, in Silent Film and Opera Performances p. 131 Hyunseon Lee
  • Scandalizing Orientalism: The Aida Productions by Hans Neuenfels (1981) and Peter Konwitschny (1994) p. 163 Erika Fischer-Lichte
  • Performing the Icon: The Body on Stage and the Staged Body in Salome's 'Dance of the Seven Veils' p. 179 Hedda Høgåsen-Hallesby
  • Part IV Operatic Exoticism in Cinema p. 203
  • Affirmation and Resistance: Operatic Exoticism on Film p. 205 Marcia J. Citron
  • The Fatal Attraction of Madame Butterfly p. 223 Naomi Segal
  • Part V Epilogue: Directing Opera
  • Subsequent Performances p. 245 Sir Jonathan Miller
  • Notes on Contributors p. 273
  • Index p. 279

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