Report of Monthly Regular Meeting May 2024 (The 219th Meeting of Opera Research Group)
Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization,Waseda University
- Time and Date: May 11th (Sat.) 2024, 16:30 – 18:00 (JST)
- Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
- Presenter: YAMADA, Sayaka
- Affiliation: Kyoto Seika University
- Title: “Japanese images in ballets presented in Turn-of-the-Century Britain”
- Language: Japanese
- Abstract: From the 1870s to the early 1900s, many stage productions based on Japanese themes were produced in Europe and the USA, and well-known ballet examples include Yedda (1879) and Le Rêve (1890), which were performed in France (at the Paris Opera). In the UK, ballets based on Japanese themes were already being performed in the late 1870s, preceding the premiere of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan Japonisme operetta The Mikado(1885). From then until the 1900s, ballets and dances featuring Japan appeared frequently on the stage.
This presentation will focus on works produced in London, UK, and examine how “Japan” was represented on stage in the non-verbal form of ballets, and how those ballets were received by the audiences of the time. In parallel with the process of increasing engagement with Japan and the Japanese people, the representation of Japan in theater and music drama also changed. In this context, I will also discuss how such transformations were/were not reflected on the ballet stage. - Profile of Presenter: Sayaka YAMADA is a lecturer in the Faculty of Global Culture at Kyoto Seika University. She studied at Showa University of Music and received her PhD in dance studies from Ochanomizu University (“Activities and Background of Ballet Master G.V. Rosi: Ballet Culture at Turn-of-the-Century Europe and Its Introduction to Japan”). Her research interests include the history of ballet, particularly ballet in the national and popular theatres of Europe from the late 19th century onwards, and how it was transferred to and adapted in Japan. She has published “Ballet and Media: ‘Entente Cordiale’ in the British Music Hall” (Waseda Opera and Music Theatre Studies, No. 3, 2022).
- Moderator: OGAWA, Sawako
＊ Comment: There were 29 participants
