Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In an opera where the imperialism of 19th century and the devastation of the colonized are distilled into two principal characters, the score keeps the cultural associations clear without condemning said imperialism with too broad a brush or heavy a hand.
2 comments:
Unfortunately, I haven’t had any experience with operas and I was hoping to see this one, however, it coincided with Carnegie Mellon’s family weekend, so I was unable to attend. I am hoping to be able to make it to the next production, whatever and whenever that may be. This is especially unfortunate as this review makes this production sound excellent, yet relatively traditional. It sounds like it would give me a good idea of what opera as a whole is like. I think something that is important to mention about this production, and show as a whole, that this review does mention, is the depiction of Japanese culture in the nineteenth century. One thing that this review does say is that it could be a good conversation starter about the portrayal of races. While this is accurate, I do think that conversation should also be relevant to the overall show.
I am really excited to see this show today! As part of our history class we have the opportunity to go see this show and I decided that I was going to take that opportunity and learn more about what we are doing through theater. I think that theater is a great teaching method because not only can information be conveyed, the stories connect with the audience and they have a deeper understanding of what is happening. A lot about what I know from history seems to be from one historical musical/opera or another. The one thing I am a little mad about is the lack of asian actors in a show that is set in China. From the pictures and the names of the actors, I cannot find a singe asian and that is really sad because this entire show is set in asia and is about the differences of asian and european traditions and cultures. When I see it today I will make sure to try and find some asians.
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