tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post1630651062492592202..comments2024-03-15T01:11:32.832-07:00Comments on Bardiac: The Kyushu Trip: Nagasaki and OperaBardiachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-68788749400140157772008-04-05T08:35:00.000-07:002008-04-05T08:35:00.000-07:00Wow, cool! Thanks, Richard. I don't think it's r...Wow, cool! Thanks, Richard. I don't think it's really practical for me to try to look at Japanese materials, since I know only about 5 kanji. Alas!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-22792172680720614912008-04-01T21:50:00.000-07:002008-04-01T21:50:00.000-07:00My pleasure, Bardiac! You might be interested to k...My pleasure, Bardiac! You might be interested to know that, once they returned to Japan, Kawakami's troupe turned the tables and presented western theater to Japanese audiences previously only familiar with Kabuki. Kawakami himself "modernized" may western plays, once famously combining Hamlet with The Student Prince. At least one Japanese reviewer (now, this is according to Downer) chastised him for having Hamlet enter on a bicycle....<BR/><BR/>A very interesting time.<BR/><BR/>If you are curious about theater history in Japan, Waseda University (Tokyo) has the most extensive collection of materials. They even lend some as far as the US via ILL. The librarian for your Japanese host university can help you figure out what's in Waseda's collection, and write a letter of introduction for you to the Waseda library, if you think you'll have a chance to visit while you're in Japan.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-84057841066632876482008-04-01T20:37:00.000-07:002008-04-01T20:37:00.000-07:00Richard, I'd heard about the short story and histo...Richard, I'd heard about the short story and historical basis, but not at all about Sada Yakko! How fascinating! Thanks for telling me.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-7761619982308958802008-04-01T10:10:00.000-07:002008-04-01T10:10:00.000-07:00Puccini had indeed already created what today woul...Puccini had indeed already created what today would probably be called Madame Butterfly: The Opera before Miura came along. (The storyline goes back in France to at least 1887, when Pierre Loti wrote a novel called <I>Madame Chrysantheme</I>, and there are also Japanese versions that were created independently from the original "true story").<BR/><BR/>But as it happens, there is a Japanese actress closely associated with Madame Butterfly, Sada Yakko (sometimes spelled Sadayakko or Sada Yacco). She was a famous geisha romantically involved with several famous Japanese men who then retired, married an up-and-coming actor named Kawakami Otojiro, and went on tour with him to the US and Europe in 1900. Although she had not intended to appear on stage, from the moment they landed in San Francisco she found herself the center of attention, and so became the first modern Japanese actress. In Europe she and Kawakami hobnobbed with Mallarme, Picasso, Isadora Duncan etc. Puccini saw one of her performances while shortly after he finished writing the staging for Madame Butterfly, and was so taken with her depiction of a tragic geisha who commits suicide over love (one of her standard acts) that he rewrote the stage directions to mimic her acting on the belief that she was presenting an authentic Japanese experience.<BR/><BR/>The amusing thing, as you might guess, was that she and Kawakami had basically created the character, action, and staging to please American and French audiences, basically presenting western orientalism as authentic Japanese theater.<BR/><BR/>Lesley Downer has written a fascinating biography of her called <I>Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West</I>. She is also covered in a more academic way in couple of chapters in Ayako Kano's <I>Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism</I>. I highly recommend both (Downer is more fun; Kano works harder to place Sada Yakko in the longer run of both European and Japanese theater).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com