Monthly Regular Meeting January2023 (The 208th Meeting of Opera Research Group)
Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University
- Time and Date: January 21st (Sat.) 2023, 16:30 – 18:00 (JST)
- Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
– Registration is required by January 18th (Wed.). Please fill out the following Google-Form: (Currently closed)
-The invitation e-mail via zoom will be sent to the registrants on January 20th. - Presenter: KASAHARA, Mariko
- Affiliation,Position: Project Researcher of the Humanities Center at the University of Tokyo
- Title: “Opera and Scent: Massenet’s ‘Thais’ as a Subject”
- Language: Japanese
- Abstract:
In recent years, opera productions have become increasingly diversified, with many incorporating 4D and VR perspectives that have long since surpassed 3D. One of the most classic methods, “scent,” has been used in European stage productions since the mid-19th century. Especially in France, where the “bourgeoisification of the sense of smell” (Corbin 1982) progressed in the 19th century, the changing values of fragrance over time were reflected in artistic productions. In operas, scent and the sense of smell were essential elements in the text, music, and stage direction.
In this presentation, using Jules Massenet’s (1842-1912) opera “Thais” (1894) as a case study, I will analyze the characteristics and background of the synergistic effect of text and music on fragrance in French opera from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Finally, the possibilities of scent production in contemporary operas will be shown. - Profile of Presenter:
Dr. Mariko Kasahara is a Project Researcher of the Humanities Center at the University of Tokyo and also an adjunct researcher at the Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre at Waseda University. She has just completed her doctoral thesis, “The Mise en Scène of Massenet’s ‘Manon’: Analysis in the making process of an opera derived from a literature,” at the Department of Cultural Resources Studies, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology at the University of Tokyo. Her current academic interests are in Catholicism and scents depicted in French operas derived from literature during the Third Republic, opera staging, manga, and digital humanities. - Moderator: ONO, Hanae
Next meeting
- Next meeting: April 8th (Sat.) 2023
Presenter: TBD
Moderator: TBD
- Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University
- e-mail address: operaken-uketsuke[at]list.waseda.jp ( [at] = @)
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