Opera in a Multicultural World

<p>Through historical and contemporary examples this book critically explores the relevance and expressions of multicultural representation in western European operatic genres in the modern world. It reveals their approaches to reflecting identity transmitting meaning and inspiring creation as well as the ambiguities and contradictions that occur across the time and place(s) of their performance. This collection brings academic researchers in opera studies into conversation with previously unheard voices of performers critics and creators to speak to issues of race ethnicity and culture in the genre. Together they deliver a powerful critique of the perpetuation of the values and practices of dominant cultures in operatic representations of intercultural encounters. Essays accordingly cross methodological boundaries in order to focus on a central issue in the emerging field of coloniality: the hierarchies of social and political power that include the legacy of racialized practices. In theorizing coloniality through intercultural exchange in opera authors explore a range of topics and case studies that involve immigrant indigenous exoticist and other cultural representations and consider a broad repertoire that includes lesser-known Canadian operas Chinese- and African-American performances as well as works by Haydn Strauss Puccini and Wagner and in performances spanning three continents and over two centuries. In these ways the collection contributes to the development of a more integrated understanding of the interdisciplinary fields inherent in opera including musicology sociology anthropology and others connected to Theatre Gender and Cultural Studies. </p>