The 1946 Broadway premiere of Lute Song represents a milestone in reception of the Chinese dramatic tradition in the United States. Despite its yellowface and ‘Oriental pageantry’, it must be situated at the beginnings of a more respectful relationship to China and Chinese people, as the American stage began to move beyond treatments of China dominated by racist vaudeville or fantastical fairy tales. Instead, Lute Song emerged from a classic text, the long drama Pipa ji – even as its own casting and staging inherited some of the same problematic habits of representing Asia. Lute Song, one of several indirect adaptations of Chinese dramas in the American mid-century, represents a milestone as the first Broadway show inspired by American immigrant Chinatown theatre and the first Broadway musical to be based on Chinese classical drama, mediated through European Sinology. Chinese musical theatre has flourished in the United States since the 1850s (Lei 2006; Ng 2015; Rao 2017). Until very recently, its principal expression was KEYWORDS
{"title":"How far does the sound of a Pipa carry? Broadway adaptation of a Chinese classical drama","authors":"Josh Stenberg","doi":"10.1386/smt_00031_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00031_1","url":null,"abstract":"The 1946 Broadway premiere of Lute Song represents a milestone in reception of the Chinese dramatic tradition in the United States. Despite its yellowface and ‘Oriental pageantry’, it must be situated at the beginnings of a more respectful relationship to China and Chinese people, as the American stage began to move beyond treatments of China dominated by racist vaudeville or fantastical fairy tales. Instead, Lute Song emerged from a classic text, the long drama Pipa ji – even as its own casting and staging inherited some of the same problematic habits of representing Asia. Lute Song, one of several indirect adaptations of Chinese dramas in the American mid-century, represents a milestone as the first Broadway show inspired by American immigrant Chinatown theatre and the first Broadway musical to be based on Chinese classical drama, mediated through European Sinology. Chinese musical theatre has flourished in the United States since the 1850s (Lei 2006; Ng 2015; Rao 2017). Until very recently, its principal expression was KEYWORDS","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"175-191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42506817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Movie Musical!, Jeanine Basinger (2019)","authors":"G. Block","doi":"10.1386/smt_00037_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00037_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: The Movie Musical!, Jeanine Basinger (2019)\u0000New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 634 pp.,\u0000ISBN 978-1-10187-406-6, h/bk, $45.00","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"230-233"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46578068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the history of opera, singing has repeatedly been associated with states of crisis – a term and concept traced back by historian Reinhart Koselleck from its origins to expanded meanings in the modern age. By adopting his findings on the medical and economic use of crisis, a delayed discourse surfaces regarding singers and singing. Concepts of crisis as choosing between alternatives, such as trust in vocal technique or medical treatment, flexibility or specialization in repertoire, have been established and maintained. However, the most recent developments make it necessary to consider the uncertainties instead of alternatives, as well as the shifting organizational and networking aspects of the opera industry, with artist managers and agents in special, triadic relations of varying order with the opera companies and the singers. Especially with the economic pressures on the opera companies increasing, the singers’ agencies are in a key position of securing engagements and career developments.
{"title":"A crisis of the singers’ market? Shifting discourses on opera from vocal health to changes in the organization of work","authors":"Sebastian Stauss","doi":"10.1386/smt_00033_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00033_1","url":null,"abstract":"In the history of opera, singing has repeatedly been associated with states of crisis – a term and concept traced back by historian Reinhart Koselleck from its origins to expanded meanings in the modern age. By adopting his findings on the medical and economic use of crisis, a delayed discourse surfaces regarding singers and singing. Concepts of crisis as choosing between alternatives, such as trust in vocal technique or medical treatment, flexibility or specialization in repertoire, have been established and maintained. However, the most recent developments make it necessary to consider the uncertainties instead of alternatives, as well as the shifting organizational and networking aspects of the opera industry, with artist managers and agents in special, triadic relations of varying order with the opera companies and the singers. Especially with the economic pressures on the opera companies increasing, the singers’ agencies are in a key position of securing engagements and career developments.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"207-220"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46392423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, I reflect on some of the research and writing choices I made while engaged in ethnographic research for Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America. I consider several challenges, including how to navigate my role and point of view as an empathetic insider or advocating outsider of local musical theatre; how to conceptualize the project’s scope and scale; how to articulate the strengths and weaknesses of a multi-site, limited-view project; how to manage relationships with corporations that challenged my politics; and how to deal with revisions, which I invited, requested by people I interviewed and observed. I also discuss how I understood non-professional theatre-makers’ disavowal of the label ‘amateur’ and came to appreciate the untenable distinction between ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’.
{"title":"Ethnographic encounters and local musical theatre in the United States","authors":"S. Wolf","doi":"10.1386/smt_00015_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00015_1","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I reflect on some of the research and writing choices I made while engaged in ethnographic research for Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America. I consider several challenges, including how to navigate my role and point of\u0000 view as an empathetic insider or advocating outsider of local musical theatre; how to conceptualize the project’s scope and scale; how to articulate the strengths and weaknesses of a multi-site, limited-view project; how to manage relationships with corporations that challenged my politics;\u0000 and how to deal with revisions, which I invited, requested by people I interviewed and observed. I also discuss how I understood non-professional theatre-makers’ disavowal of the label ‘amateur’ and came to appreciate the untenable distinction between ‘amateur’\u0000 and ‘professional’.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"11-22"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43627775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of this ethnographic study was to better understand how participation in St. Lawrence University’s (New York, the United States) production of Spring Awakening served as a means of intimate and broader community building. This narrative ethnography investigated the director and a focus group of actors involved in the production of Spring Awakening. Analyses of the data revealed four themes: content, interconnectedness, emotion and vulnerability and magic. St. Lawrence University students welcomed and embraced the language, the music and the subject matter presented to them in the content of Spring Awakening. The willingness with which the students opened up to conversation and community continued to resonate with them in an interconnectedness that seemingly had more depth and more meaning than other productions they have worked on, including other musical theatre productions.
{"title":"‘To really trust [...] we had to be open with ourselves and each other’: Community building through Spring Awakening","authors":"Julie K. Hagen, Jennifer E. Thomas","doi":"10.1386/smt_00021_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00021_1","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this ethnographic study was to better understand how participation in St. Lawrence University’s (New York, the United States) production of Spring Awakening served as a means of intimate and broader community building. This narrative ethnography investigated\u0000 the director and a focus group of actors involved in the production of Spring Awakening. Analyses of the data revealed four themes: content, interconnectedness, emotion and vulnerability and magic. St. Lawrence University students welcomed and embraced the language, the music and the\u0000 subject matter presented to them in the content of Spring Awakening. The willingness with which the students opened up to conversation and community continued to resonate with them in an interconnectedness that seemingly had more depth and more meaning than other productions they have\u0000 worked on, including other musical theatre productions.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"95-111"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46386410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The children’s opera Brundibár received fame through performances by Jewish children in the Theresienstadt ghetto from 1943 to 1944. Since its revival in the 1970s, the work has been performed around the world in multiple languages and has been transformed into a best-selling book by Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak. Used as a tool for Holocaust education, many modern productions emphasize a narrative of cultural resistance as a way of reading the work, transforming Brundibár’s Brechtian agitprop plot of collective action profoundly. In the Sydney production of 2014, a decision was made to stay faithful to the original motives of the composer and librettist, and the production was shaped by ethnographic testimony of those who had witnessed the original performances. This article examines how the historical narrative interacts with the ethnographic and personal encounters in the interpretation and realization of this work. Burdened by a responsibility to historical context, how does ethnography assist in bringing nuance and multi-vocality? In what way does an empathic imperative inform these processes?
{"title":"Ethnography and the empathic imperative: Negotiating histories in the Sydney Brundibár Project","authors":"Joseph Toltz","doi":"10.1386/smt_00016_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00016_1","url":null,"abstract":"The children’s opera Brundibár received fame through performances by Jewish children in the Theresienstadt ghetto from 1943 to 1944. Since its revival in the 1970s, the work has been performed around the world in multiple languages and has been transformed into a\u0000 best-selling book by Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak. Used as a tool for Holocaust education, many modern productions emphasize a narrative of cultural resistance as a way of reading the work, transforming Brundibár’s Brechtian agitprop plot of collective action profoundly.\u0000 In the Sydney production of 2014, a decision was made to stay faithful to the original motives of the composer and librettist, and the production was shaped by ethnographic testimony of those who had witnessed the original performances. This article examines how the historical narrative interacts\u0000 with the ethnographic and personal encounters in the interpretation and realization of this work. Burdened by a responsibility to historical context, how does ethnography assist in bringing nuance and multi-vocality? In what way does an empathic imperative inform these processes?","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"23-36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43303425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium, Joseph Church (2015)New York: Oxford University Press, 392 pp.,ISBN 978-0-19999-340-6, h/bk, £79.00
{"title":"Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium, Joseph Church (2015)","authors":"Tony Castro","doi":"10.1386/smt_00026_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00026_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium, Joseph Church (2015)New York: Oxford University Press, 392 pp.,ISBN 978-0-19999-340-6, h/bk, £79.00","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"125-127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43115850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Boho Days: The Wider Works of Jonathan Larson, J. Collis (2018)","authors":"H. Robbins","doi":"10.1386/smt_00025_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00025_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Boho Days: The Wider Works of Jonathan Larson, J. Collis (2018)Sheffield: Jonathon Collis, 404 pp.,ISBN 978-3-00059-113-6, h/bk, $46.00","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"123-124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45598215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Helena Marinho, Mónica Chambel, Alfonso Benetti, Luís Bittencourt
The recreation or re-enactment of twentieth-century avant-garde musical theatre works involves a set of epistemological and methodological issues that can be addressed through practice-based procedures informed by archaeological, ethnographic and experimental perspectives. This article presents a discussion about the relevance of integrating these perspectives, departing from their application in a specific case study, the recreation of Don’t, Juan (1985), an experimental musical theatre work by the Portuguese composer, pianist and percussionist Constança Capdeville (1937‐92). This research proposes the blending of archaeology with the living experience of performance as an approach to a reconstruction project, with methods such as performative ethnography, experimental practice and embodied knowledge through performance operating as effective tools.
{"title":"Experimental recreation practices: Restaging Constança Capdeville’s musical theatre work Don’t, Juan","authors":"Helena Marinho, Mónica Chambel, Alfonso Benetti, Luís Bittencourt","doi":"10.1386/smt_00020_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00020_1","url":null,"abstract":"The recreation or re-enactment of twentieth-century avant-garde musical theatre works involves a set of epistemological and methodological issues that can be addressed through practice-based procedures informed by archaeological, ethnographic and experimental perspectives. This article\u0000 presents a discussion about the relevance of integrating these perspectives, departing from their application in a specific case study, the recreation of Don’t, Juan (1985), an experimental musical theatre work by the Portuguese composer, pianist and percussionist Constança\u0000 Capdeville (1937‐92). This research proposes the blending of archaeology with the living experience of performance as an approach to a reconstruction project, with methods such as performative ethnography, experimental practice and embodied knowledge through performance operating as\u0000 effective tools.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"77-94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46880710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In South Korea, musicals are considered as ‘female culture’. Based on recent fieldwork, this essay gives attention to the ways in which female fans project themselves in three common spaces: in dark theatre auditoriums, online fan forums and feminist protests. In each of the three spaces, female musical fans nurture and enact their own version of feminism. I employ the discourse of ‘voyeurism’ and ‘half-visibility’ to understand how young South Korean women navigate patriarchal capitalist society. I ultimately argue that today’s South Korean musicals empower young South Korean women by providing safe spaces for feminism.
{"title":"The right to see and not be seen: South Korean musicals and young feminist activism","authors":"Jiyoon Jung","doi":"10.1386/smt_00017_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00017_1","url":null,"abstract":"In South Korea, musicals are considered as ‘female culture’. Based on recent fieldwork, this essay gives attention to the ways in which female fans project themselves in three common spaces: in dark theatre auditoriums, online fan forums and feminist protests. In each of\u0000 the three spaces, female musical fans nurture and enact their own version of feminism. I employ the discourse of ‘voyeurism’ and ‘half-visibility’ to understand how young South Korean women navigate patriarchal capitalist society. I ultimately argue that today’s\u0000 South Korean musicals empower young South Korean women by providing safe spaces for feminism.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"37-50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46444492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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