Report of Monthly Regular Meeting November 2024 (223rd Meeting of Opera Research Group)
Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization,Waseda University
- Time and Date: November 2nd (Sat.) 2024, Research Report 16:30 – 18:00, Keywords Report 18:10 – 19:10 (JST)
- Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
- Presenter: MORIOKA, Miho, Chuo University
- Speaker: OKAMOTO, Yoshiko, Kobe University
- Language: Japanese
- Organized by：Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University
- Presentation: The issue of “blackface” in performances of The Magic Flute: MORIOKA, Miho
- Abstract: The term “blackface” is used to describe the practice of non-black performers using theatrical makeup to paint their skin black, thereby appearing to be black on stage or in entertainment. This practice is now considered highly offensive and inappropriate, as it has historically been used to portray black people as caricatured figures based on a discriminatory viewpoint. The representation of roles that have been traditionally played in “blackface” is one of the key initiatives for anti-discrimination in the performing arts world today. This presentation will examine current approaches to the representation of Monostatos, the “Moor,” in Mozart’s The Magic Flute as an example of such roles. Drawing on a recent paper on the subject, “Blackness and Whiteness in The Magic Flute: Reflections from Shakespeare Studies” (2023) by Adeline Mueller, I will add further perspectives to this paper using available stage videos from the 1980s to the present, my own records of the 25 performances I have seen in the past, and critical articles on the performances of this opera in the British magazine Opera over the past 20 years.
- Profile of Presenter: Miho Morioka is a Professor of Chuo University, Faculty of Economics. Her special research field is the analysis of political representation in opera productions by contemporary directors (e.g., Richard Jones, Peter Konwitschny, William Kentridge, Vasily Barkhatov). She is the author of Viewing the world through Opera Houses. (2013). She is also a contributor to Construction of Modern Japan in Gender Discourses (2003), Gender History Series, Volume 4: Visual Representation and Music (2010), The Art of Love – An Introduction to Queer Reading (2013), Arts Updated – Film, Opera and Literature (2014), Renovation of the Arts (2020), and An Invitation to Global Cultural History (2023).
- Keywords Report: OKAMOTO, Yoshiko
- Abstract: This study focuses on The Miraculous Mandarin, created by Lengyel and Bartók, examining the dramaturgical difference and the relationship between the stage version and the suite version, and compares them to assess their stage effects and the reception of the work. Keywords: Bartók, Dance, Suite, Reception
- Profile of Speaker：Yoshiko Okamoto is a lecturer at the Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Japan. She received her M.A. in 2010 and Ph.D. in 2014 from the University of Tokyo, with a doctoral thesis on Bartók’s opera, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Her main interest is in Bartók’s stage works and their relationship to literature. From 2011 to 2012, she received support from the Hungarian Scholarship Board and carried out research at the Budapest Bartók Archives, Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her publications include “Images of the friendship with Bartók: From Béla Balázs’s Recollections,” Hungarian Studies, 28(2): 211-234 and “Béla Bartók’s controversy with Géza Molnár in 1911: As a member of the ‘Transitional generation,’” Studia Musicologica, 58(2): 129-146.
- Moderator: MORIMOTO, Yoriko
- Comment: There were 35 participants.
contact
Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University: https://prj-opera-mt.w.waseda.jp/
e-mail address: operaken-uketsuke[at]list.waseda.jp ([at] = @)
