Opera Indigene: Critical Perspectives on Re/presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures
September 27 & 28 2008, Kings College London, England
Presented in collaboration with the Department of Drama, University of the West of England and co-hosted by the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College London.
Introduction
The representation of non-western cultures in opera has long been a focus of critical inquiry. Within this field, the diverse relationships between opera and First Nations and indigenous cultures has received far less attention. 'Opera Indigene' will take this subject as its focus, and examine it in three different aspects:
- Historical and contemporary representations of colonised peoples at a distance from Europe;
- Historical and contemporary representations of colonised peoples from within post-colonial nations with inherited history of colonisation; and
- Artistic collaborations initiated by or including First Nations' cultures.
This conference will examine how representations of indigeneity are negotiated in opera, and how these representations of First Nations' cultures relate to historical and contemporary constructions of cultural and national identity. The separation of the word 're/presenting' in our title seeks to address this distinction between how representations of indigenous identity have been constructed in opera by non-indigenous artists, and how indigenous artists have utilised opera as an interface to present their cultural traditions in more recent collaborations. In its focus on First Nations cultures, this conference will specifically consider operas and music theatre work about settler-invader colonies including Australia, Canada, The United States, Mexico, South Africa and South America.
In relation to current postdramatic and post-operatic developments in music theatre practice, it is useful to question the place of opera in an artistic future where drama and music are not subject to the same hierarchical assumptions in the imaginations of creators, audiences and scholars of the operatic past and present. As demonstrated in several recent operatic collaborations, First Nations artists have increasingly begun to use the multidisciplinary potential of the opera in order to present the integration of storytelling, dance and song central to their cultural practices. More than simply a site at which non-indigenous creators have represented indigenous culture, opera has thus become a further avenue for the active expression and expansion of indigenous cultural practices. The conference will provide a forum to discuss this shift towards the notions of collaboration, collusion and participation of a wider community of artists in opera.
Conference Fee: £60 waged and £15 unwaged/student delegate.
One-day attendance: £30 waged and £7.50 unwaged/student delegate
CONFERENCE TIMETABLE
Kings College London, Strand Campus.
Day 1 - Saturday, September 27th, 2008
8:30am REGISTRATION
9:00am - 11:00am Opera and/as Post/Colonialism
Nicholas Till Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre, University of Sussex "Orpheus Conquistador"
Michael Halliwell Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney "'Singing from the margins': postcolonial opera as embodied in Voss (Meal/Malouf) and Waiting for the Barbarians (Glass/Hampton)"
William Lane Artistic Director, Grenzenlos "Critical Perspectives on Re/Presenting Australian Indigenous Culture in Contemporary Australian Opera"
11:00am - 11:30am COFFEE BREAK
11:30am - 1:30pm Indianism in North and South America
Maria Alice Volpe Universidade de Brasília, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro "Indianismo in Brazilian Romantic opera: Shifting Ideologies of National Identity"
Tara Browner The University of California, Los Angeles "Native Songs, Indianist Styles, and the Processes of Music Idealization in Shanewis"
Michelle Wick Patterson Mount St. Mary's University, "'The Spirit of the Real America': Indianist Music and Opera in the Early Twentieth Century United States"
1:30pm - 2:30pm LUNCH
2:30pm - 3:50pm New Collaborations
Jane Taylor University of the Witwatersrand, "The Witbooi Letters"
Victoria Vaughan Real Time Opera, Oberlin College Conservatory, "After McPhee: Evan Ziporyn's A House in Bali"
3:50pm - 4:10pm TEA BREAK
4:10pm - 5:30pm Staging First Nations Identities
Robert McQueen Stage Director, Vancouver Opera, The Magic Flute (2007)
Marion Newman Mezzo-soprano, Vancouver Opera, The Magic Flute (2007) "West Coast First Peoples and The Magic Flute: Tracing the Journey of a Cross-Cultural Collaboration"
Alan Lechusza The University of California, San Diego "Post-modern Native Identity Re-presented in the Electro-acoustic Multi-media Operatic Work TRAPA"
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Day 2 - Sunday, September 28th, 2008
9:30am - 10:50am Australian Perspectives
Fiona Richards Open University "Indigenous Themes in the Music of Andrew Schultz"
Anne Boyd Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney "To Didj or Not to Didj' - Exploring indigenous representation in Australian Music Theatre Works by Margaret Sutherland and Andrew Schultz"
10:50am - 11:20am COFFEE BREAK
11:20pm - 12:40pm Canadian Perspectives
Mary Ingraham University of Alberta "Assimilation, Integration, and Individuation: The Evolution of Musical Citizenship of Canada's First Nations People"
Colleen Renihan University of Toronto "'Mon corps enveloppé d'un halo de lumière': Fighting operatic tendencies on the way to the periphery in Harry Somers' Louis Riel"
Alison Greene University of Victoria "'Too Much White Man In It': Tzinquaw as an Example of Aesthetic Colonization"
12:40-1:40pm LUNCH
1:40-3:00pm American Perspectives
Catherine Parsons Smith University of Nevada Reno "Composed and Produced in the American West, 1912-1913: Two Operatic Portraits of First Nations Cultures"
Natalia Anderson University of Western Ontario, Canada "Native American Segregation and Assimilation in Herbert and Redding's Natoma"
3:00pm - 4:20pm Montezumas
Tarcisio Balbo Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali, Modena, Italy "Staging Motezuma Today Between Philology, Hermeneutics, and Historical Judgement"
Björn Heile University of Sussex "The Conquest of the Americas in Contemporary German Opera"
4:20pm - 4:50pm TEA BREAK
4:50pm - 5:50pm Summary Panel - Nicholas Till