Since the dawn of time, theatrical creatives have coaxed audiences out of reality and into fantastic worlds with gripping stories through the magic of stagecraft. In order to help the audience suspend their disbelief and get caught up in a story, theater-makers use symbols that represent the real world. A symbol is something that stands in for something else in the real world. A symbol can be a flag that represents a nation, or a stoplight that is a stand-in for commands, or a dove that represents peace. On stage, a costume is a great symbol that helps give you [...]

Opera creatives face the perennial challenge of pushing the art form forward and making it resonate with new audiences. Companies can approach this challenge using three different strategies. The first and most common strategy is to present European canonic operas but change the original setting. This challenges the original form and simultaneously brings new truths inherent in the work that might be more relevant to a contemporary audience. Examples include Calixto Bieito’s Carmen set in late 1970s Spain and the Metropolitan Opera’s recent Rigoletto, set in 1940s Las Vegas. Shakespeare’s plays, written over 400 years ago, are often set in [...]

“We keep our heads down and work hard, believing that our diligence will reward us with our dignity, but our diligence will only make us disappear. By not speaking up, we perpetuate the myth that our shame is caused by our repressive culture and the country we fled, whereas America has given us nothing but opportunity.” -Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning In a sound world dominated by high Cs and virtuosic coloratura runs, qualities such as volume, presence, and dimensionality are prized in a voice. The entrance of the leading lady of the opera is applauded; [...]

How many variations of the fairytale, Cinderella , can you name? There’s Rhodopis from ancient Greece, Ye Xian from ancient China, Perrault’s Cendrillon and Walt Disney’s Cinderella , to name a few . This familiar rags-to-riches story has inspired each generation to find a new “twist” in the story to make it resonate with their local audience. With its multicultural history, it’s easy to continue to adapt a story like Cinderella, which has undergone many variations over time, yet somehow still manages to hold its plot and structure. However, it is a much greater challenge to reimagine a work, like [...]

In our previous Butterfly Process session with Dr. Kunio Hara, we gained insightful historical context about the genesis of Madama Butterfly, as well as tracing its performance history through the evolving social and geopolitical conditions to the present day. This second session unpacked Orientalism and Cultural Appropriation which are two very significant topics that play a heavy hand in understanding the dynamics at play with why Madama Butterfly can often be problematic. To tackle the conversation from multiple perspectives, BLO invited a panel of academics, artists, and presenters to show historical and scholarly context alongside real feedback from creatives in [...]

Contextualizing Butterfly  Welcome to The Butterfly Process blog! My name is Phil Chan, I am the cofounder of Final Bow for Yellowface and since 2017, we have been working to improve how to represent Asians on the stage (yes, we are the folks who de-yellowfaced The Nutcracker). Though my work has primarily been ballet, I am a self-professed opera queen. So, I was intrigued when BLO invited me to lead a year-long conversation around the issues raised when producing Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, a work I love but have always been slightly uncomfortable with. As my creative practice consists [...]