the meeting report for 2/6

*Comments: There were 29 participants including those from abroad.

Information of Monthly Regular Meeting February 2021　(The 193rd Meeting of Opera Research Group)

Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University

Keywords for Opera and Music Theatre

Abstract for the Meeting

• Time and Date : February 6th (Sat.) 2021, 16:30-17:30 (JST)
• Format : Online meeting (Zoom)
• Presenter :INOUE, Tokiko (Ochanomizu University, Associate Professor)
• Title: Orchestra concerts and “opera excerpts” from the 1910s and the 1930s
• Language : Japanese
• Moderator : OGINO, Shizuo
• Abstract:
  Performances of opera overtures and excerpts have functioned as a “common culture,” linking diverse concert cultures in modern Western cities. In Japan, opera excerpts became popular from the Taisho era to the early Showa era, and were accepted by people with different musical tastes and practices. This acceptance was due to the trends in the reception of Western music at that time, such as the popularity of operas, the rise of orchestras, the increased activity of amateur music, the spread of records and phonographs, and the expansion of supply and demand for music magazines and sheet music publishing. This presentation examines the relationship between opera excerpts and changing musical tastes, focusing on student orchestra concerts from the 1910s and the 1930s.These are the keywords for the presentation: Opera Excerpts/Miscellany/Concert/Bizet’s Carmen/ Japan/ Student Orchestra/1910’s-1930’s
  Keywords:  Opera Excerpts / Miscellany / Concert / Bizet’s Carmen / Japan / Student Orchestra / 1910’s-1930’s

Attention

– Registration is required by February 3 (Wed.). Please write an e-mail with name, affiliation and e-mail address (subject: February Meeting) to:
reikaiuketsuke[at]gmail.com　( [at] = @)

-The invitation e-mail via zoom will be sent to the registrants on February 5 (Fr.)

Profile of Presenter

Tokiko INOUE

Tokiko INOUE is currently an Associate Professor at Ochanomizu University (Japan). She completed an MA and Ph.D. degrees in musicology at Ochanomizu University. Her doctoral dissertation was titled A study of choral societies in nineteenth century Dresden: The social aspect of choral activities. She is currently conducting historical and empirical researches on the performance repertoires of concerts in Japan and overseas. She has published articles in Poetics, Journal of the Musicological Society of Japan, Ethno-Arts, and the other journals.

LINKS: Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University

the meeting report for 12/5

＊Comments: There were 17 participants including those from abroad.

Information of Monthly Regular Meeting December 2020　(The 192nd Meeting of Opera Research Group)

Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University

Keywords for Opera and Music Theatre

abstract for the Meeting

• Time and Date: December 5th (Sat.) 16:30-17:30 (JST)
• Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
• Presenter: KITAGAWA, Chikako (Associate Professor, Keio University)
• Title:  Salvatore Sciarrino’s Lohengrin (1982) – The Concept of the “Audible Body”
• Language: Japanese
• Chair:   SATO, Suguru
• Abstract:
  Salvatore Sciarrino (b. 1947) is one of the most important contemporary composers. He has created a unique acoustic world that is reduced and stylized to the limits of silence and noise through specific instrumental and singing techniques. His opera Lohengrin, for example,is characterized by radical reduction: Elsa is the only, seemingly abysmal figure in this monodrama. Her singing is embodied in elementary physical vocalizations, such as breaths or gurgles. This was clarified by the staging of this opera during the Salzburg Easter Festival 2017 (director: Michael Sturminger). The musical and scenic design achieved a new dimension not hitherto found in the figure of Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin.
  Keywords:  Salvatore Sciarrino / Richard Wagner / voice / silence / physicality / staging / monodrama

Attention

– Registration is required by December 2 (Wed.). Please write an e-mail with name, affiliation and e-mail address (subject: December Meeting) to:
reikaiuketsuke[at]gmail.com　( [at] = @)

-The invitation e-mail via zoom will be sent to the registrants at 14:00 on December 5.

Profile of Presenter

KITAGAWA, Chikako

Associate Professor at Keio University. As a DAAD scholarship holder, she graduated in 2013 from the Freie Universität Berlin (Institute of Theater Studies), with the dissertation Versuch über Kundry – Facetten einer Figur (Experiment on Kundry – Facets of a Character, published by Peter Lang, 2015). PhD. Her main areas of research include Wagner’s dramatic oeuvre, as well as the staging aesthetics of opera and musical theater. Her current research projects are focused on the analysis of the phenomena of silence and stillness in musical theater, from Wagner to the present

 

LINKS: Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University

the meeting report for 11/7

＊Comments: There were 25 participants including those from abroad. It seemed that many
researchers of dance studies were present as in the last Meeting. The exchange of information was very stimulating in the Q&A-section.

Information of Monthly Regular Meeting November 2020　(The 191th Meeting of Opera Research Group)

Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University

Keywords for Opera and Music Theatre

abstract for the Meeting

• Time and Date: November 7th (Sat.) 16:30-17:30 (JST)
• Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
• Presenter:YAMADA, Sayaka
• Title:  Dance and Opera at the Teigeki in the Taisho Era and Ballet in Turn-of-the-Century Europe: Focus on the Activities of G.V. Rosi
• Language: Japanese
• Chair:  NAKAMURA, Ryo
• Abstract:
  IMany Western-style dance and opera works were performed at the Teigeki (the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo) during the Taisho era. Some of the works performed there are thought to have been adapted from ballet that was previously performed in national theatres and variety theatres elsewhere. It is assumed that this was due to the influence of the activities of the Italian ballet master Giovanni Vittorio Rosi, who was invited to the Teigeki as a teacher in the Opera Department.
  This presentation examines the Teigeki performances and works that Rosi was involved in by clarifying performance activities in Western Europe before Rosi’s arrival in Japan.
  Keywords: Giovanni Vittorio Rosi / the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo / variety theatre / London, UK / Italy / La Scala, Milan

Attention

— Registration is required by November 4 (Wed.). Please write an e-mail with name, affiliation and e-mail address (subject: November Meeting) to:
reikaiuketsuke[at]gmail.com　( [at] = @)

-The invitation e-mail via zoom will be sent to the registrants at 14:00 on November 7

Profile of Presenter

YAMADA, Sayaka

Assistant Professor at Japan Women’s University (Faculty of Human Sciences and Design, Department of Child Studies). PhD (Dance Studies). Adjunct researcher at the Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre. Special research fields: the history of dance in Japan and Europe, particularly their popular theatres from the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century.

 

 

 

LINKS: Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University

the meeting report for 10/3

＊Comments:There were 25 participants. It seemed that many researchers of dance studies were present. The discussion was very lively in the Q&A-section. The Meeting was thus fruitful together with the presentation.

Information of Monthly Regular Meeting October 2020　(The 190th Meeting of Opera Research Group)

Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University

Keywords for Opera and Music Theatre

abstract for the Meeting

• Time and Date: October 3rd (Sat.) 16:30-17:30 (JST)
• Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
• Presenter:SUGIYAMA, Chizuru
• Title:  Activities by the Pioneers of Modern Japanese Dance in the Asakusa Opera
• Language: Japanese
• Chair:  YAGISHITA, Emi
• Abstract:
  In the western style of dance in modern Japan, the Asakusa Opera is significant in that it shows the prehistory of modern Japanese dance and that a genealogy linked to modern dance and the Asakusa light theater has been created. This presentation provides an overview of dance performed at the Asakusa Opera, and especially the works of Baku Ishii (1886-1962), Masao Takata (1895-1929), and Seiko Hara (1895-1977), who became pioneers of modern Japanese dance.

Keywords: Asakusa Opera / Dance / Baku Ishii / Masao Takata / Seiko Hara.

Attention

– Registration is required by September 30 (Wed.). Please write an e-mail with name, affiliation and e-mail address (subject: October Meeting) to:
operaken-uketsuke[at]list.waseda.jp　( [at] = @)

– The invitation e-mail via zoom will be sent to the registrants at 14:00 on October3

Profile of Presenter

SUGIYAMA, Chizuru
Professor at Waseda University. 1983-2008: Participated in the activities of the Tokyo Creative Dance Company organized by Ko and Toshiko Fujii. Edited “The Asakusa Opera Modernity of Performing Arts and Entertainment” (2017, Shinwa-sha), “Physical Representation of Modern Japan” (2013, Shinwa-sha); Coauthor of “The Body of the Japanese, Reconsidered” (2012, Meiwa Publishing) and others.

 

LINKS: Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University

the meeting report for 7/18

＊Comments: There were 21 participants. Among them were Prof. Michael Grover-Friedlander from Tel Aviv University (Israel), Prof. Christopher Morris from Meynooth University (Ireland) and Prof. Clemens Risi from Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany). We discussed lively with these participants from abroad on the theme “Takarazuka and Wagner”.

Prof. Michael Grover-Friedlander from Tel Aviv University (Israel)

Monthly Regular Meeting July 2020 (The 189th Meeting of Opera Research Group)

Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University

Keywords for Opera and Music Theatre

abstract for the Meeting

• Time and Date: July 18th (Sat.) 16:30-17:30 [Tokyo] Online meeting (Q&A only)
• Presenter: McCORKLE, Brooke
• Title: Takarazuka and Wagner
• Language: English
• Chair: ONO, Hanae
• Abstract:

This presentation examines the history of Takarazuka Revue’s adaptations of Wagner’s operas, focusing on the 1968 production of Tristan and Isolde.

These are the keywords for the presentation: Takarazuka Revue / Richard Wagner / Tristan und Isolde / Maho Shibuki / Gender.

• Profile of Presenter:

McCORKLE, Brooke
Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 with a PhD in music and a Master’s Degree in East Asian Studies. Assistant Professor, Carleton College (2019-present); Assistant Professor, University of Vermont (2018-2019); Japan Foundation Fellow, September 2019-August 2020. Author of various articles on opera and film music.

 

– This meeting could be cancelled according to circumstances. We will inform the registrants in case of the cancellation.
– Those who want to participate in this Q&A-meeting are required to watch video streaming in advance. The streaming will start on July 4th.
URL: https://youtu.be/aNh47lhU14U
– Registration is also required by July 10 (Fri.). Please write an e-mail with name, affiliation and e-mail address (subject: July Meeting) to:
operaken-uketsuke[at]list.waseda.jp　( [at] = @)
– You can send questions for the Q&A to this e-mail address beforehand.
– The invitation e-mail via zoom will be sent to the registrants at 14:00 on July 18.

LINKS: Comprehensive Research Organisation, Waseda University