There have been many discussions about the Icelandic Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly, but the production has been criticized for its cultural studies and for the use of so-called “yellow face”, a term that makes reference to white people looking more Asian.
Steinunn Birna Raganrsdóttir, opera director, dismissed this criticism and said she set clear lines that no “yellow faces” would be used in the show. She said in an interview with mbl.is :
“We chose not to turn white performers into Japanese in make-up. We use costumes for this and the age-old Japanese tradition of theatrical make-up, known as Kabuki, and so wanted to show respect for their theatrical traditions.”
Steinunn noted that to wade beneath them, those close to the show asked Asian consultants from the theater world to provide their vision. They were told that the way the installation was done was neither racist nor offensive.
However, it is not possible to prevent someone from not loving.
NOW. a protest was called outside Harpuna on Saturday due to the installation.
Puccini never went to Japan
Journalist Egill Helgason decided to voice his opinion on the matter in a Facebook post. He specifies that in fact, Madama Butterfly is not an Asian work.
“I have to admit, when I first heard of cultural appropriation, I thought it was kind of a joke. Cultural interactions throughout human history are extremely complex and fascinating – and therein lies the seeds of a beautiful and strange art. If we start to lock culture into smaller and smaller compartments and say that it is untouchable for some, we are making our lives poorer.”
He noted that the work is composed by Westerners for performance in European opera houses.
“That said, there is nothing really Japanese or Asian in this opera Madama Butterfly. It was composed by a Westerner to be performed in European opera houses. Puccini never went to Japan. There’s a slight echo of oriental music, but otherwise it’s just fantasy – like fairy tales about the emperor in China. We can also cite works like The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan and The Good Soul in Sezuan by Brecht or The Great Wall by Kafka – they take place in a fairy tale world that is really everywhere and nowhere, is only ‘pure and simple fiction that wants to drop in a fantastic version of Asia. Once people on the Icelandic scene played a national version of Skugga-Sveini, deleted the songs and cleaned up everything Danish. But then people were faced with the fact that there was nothing left of the play – which is the essence of Danish comedy.”
Egill states in a comment to his article that he thinks much of the talk of cultural studies comes from people with “half-baked upbringings”.
“Unfortunately, I think a lot of this is about cultural studies, and it’s coming from people who have a half-baked education – which is in some ways worse than no education – in studies that aren’t really cultural studies. studies but beliefs. All nuance is lost and the base of knowledge and understanding is very weak. History can help increase understanding – more so than sociology.”
Do better
Among those who have criticized the installation is Korean-American professor and humorist Daniel Roh, who wrote a column for Indicator today because he said he would attend the demonstration on Saturday.
He says that the actors in the production had “yellow faces”, this can be seen, among other things, in the images that appeared from the show, where the actors squint.
Two things are usually available when this happens. On the one hand, admitting mistakes and trying to fix them, on the other hand, refusing to apologize, standing firm and trying to belittle those who have been hurt. The Icelandic Opera chose the second option.
“Racism is real and persistent in everyday life in Iceland. If the state-run Icelandic Opera is proud to show Yellowface, won’t parents think it’s okay to allow their children to wearing Yellowface on Ash Wednesday or school fancy dress days?”
Laura Liu, a Chinese-American violinist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, also criticized the show. She says she promotes racist stereotypes.
She wrote on Facebook:
“Wearing another’s race as a costume is called dehumanization. Doing better.”
Laura also pointed out that the symbols on the artwork that adorn the background of the piece are all in Chinese, but Madama Butterfly is set in Japan. She pointed out in a conversation with The newspaper the opera is supposedly from the turn of the century and written by an Italian who has never been to Japan. Therefore, the performance actually pushes back the stereotypes the composer had about Asian people.
