Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Madam Butterfly'

Madame Butterfly is analyzed as a cultural icon. Puccini s Madaina Butterfly and the Butterfly icon, i.e. the submissive Oriental beauty who cannot live after her Western lover betrays her, permeate Western stereotypes of Eastern culture. Through this mindset, miscommunication develops. This concept was popularized in David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly, which builds upon Puccini's opera. Through the character's misperceptions of each other, the opera's tragic ending is repeated in Hwang's play after the French diplomat Gallimard realizes that his ideal woman is actually a male spy. Traditions regarding homosexuality and cross-dressing help Song to create Gallimard's feminine ideal. The theater contributes through tan and onnagata roles where men are trained to create perfect feminine illusions. These stereotypes are problematic because they do not allow for the complexities that exist in the theater, on film, and in actual events. Through increased sensitivity and awareness, individuals can see past the stereotypes to see other's complexities.
Department of English

I have long had an interest in reworking iconic love stories from the romantic world of opera into contemporary, gay contexts, with the intention of demonstrating the similarities as well as the differences between homosexual and heterosexual relationships. I have not been satisfied with my attempts thus far, and so, as I adapt the story made famous by Puccini in Madama Butterfly, I want to readdress and to improve my practice to ensure that the resulting screenplay speaks authentically to a 21st century audience whilst still echoing its forebear. Using this creative practice, this PhD extends into the process of adaptation Dallas J. Baker’s (2011) concept of ‘queered practice-­‐led research’. It begins with an historical case-­‐study of the genealogy of the story that became Madama Butterfly and its descendants, looking for the intentions of the creators of each version. Through this process I seek to identify the essence of the story – its ‘genetic identity’ in terms of both theme and plot – from which I will create my new version. Crucially, the thesis is written from my perspective as a practitioner, and maintains focus on my intention in embarking on the adaptation project. The thesis continues with reflection on my practice in writing the adapted screenplay, exploring the effect of the changes I have made, the most significant being making the central relationship homosexual. It examines how that queering process fundamentally alters the story in far more respects than simply the gender and sexuality of the central characters, and suggests that it liberates the story. In conclusion it reflects on how my research has informed my practice, and my practice my research, and assesses how the additional freedoms afforded by queering the story have liberated it, and have enhanced my practice as a screenwriter.

Sebastian Beverloo: "Damn Pinkerton, and all such as he! – Om orientalism i Madame Butterfly." Exa- mensarbete på kandidatnivå i musikvetenskap, Institutionen för musik- och teatervetenskap, Stockholms universitet, ht 2014. Orientalism är teorin att Väst, genom representation i konsten, har förmedlat en ofördelaktig bild av Ori- entens folk, seder och bruk. Begreppet förklarar de estetiska strömningar som följde med den ostindiska handeln och den europeiska kolonialismen. Problemen som teorin om kulturell orientalism sätter fingret på innefattar olika aspekter av representation; hur orientalerna (redan det ett problematiskt begrepp i sig) har gestaltats i konsten. Ett av de centrala problemen är att etnicitet lyfts fram före individualitet: en orien- talisk man är i första hand orientalisk, och bara i andra hand man. Det här arbetet problematiserar repre- sentationen av rollpersonerna i den kvartett av verk, som jag kallar för Madame Geisha-berättelsen (Lotis Madame Chrysanthème (1887), Longs Madame Butterfly (1898), Belascos Madame Butterfly (1900), Puc- cinis Madama Butterfly (1904-7)). Mer specifikt undersöks hur den japanska kvinnan gestaltas genom alla de fyra verken – i synnerhet med hänsyn till relationen mellan japansk kvinnlighet och västerländsk man- lighet. Ett av huvudproblemen är att centralfiguren i berättelsen är en japansk kvinna, trots att ingen av de inblandade författarna var varken japansk eller en kvinna. Verken studeras sida vid sida och jämförs utifrån orientalistiska och genusrelaterade problem. En del av undersökningen ägnas även åt Butterflys påstaådda verkliga ursprung.

Le film d’opéra correspond à la rencontre de deux formes d’art ayant chacune ses propres règles de mise en scène. Il nécessite de concilier les exigences de l’opéra et celles du cinéma, mais prétend aussi favoriser leur enrichissement mutuel. Notre réflexion porte sur la pertinence, du point de vue créatif, de cette rencontre. Elle vise à mettre en évidence les risques, les enjeux et les intérêts artistiques du film d’opéra. Le corpus revêt une dimension franco-italienne : il se compose de cinq films produits par Daniel Toscan du Plantier (Don Giovanni de Joseph Losey, Carmen de Francesco Rosi, La Bohème de Luigi Comencini, Madame Butterfly de Frédéric Mitterrand, Tosca de Benoît Jacquot) et de deux autres, non produits par lui : La Traviata et Otello de Franco Zeffirelli, qui appartiennent à cette même « vague » du film d’opéra. L’étude s’intéresse tout d’abord à la politique culturelle du producteur Daniel Toscan du Plantier, grâce à qui ce genre cinématographique s’est développé de façon significative dans les années 1980, afin de définir le contexte de création de ses films, de comprendre son engagement en faveur de ce genre artistique et son intérêt tout particulier pour la culture italienne. Notre analyse tend par la suite à évaluer les difficultés techniques ainsi que les libertés créatives qu’engendre le passage à l’écran. L’écriture cinématographique de l’opéra implique des concessions sur le plan de la réalisation et nécessite un positionnement entre les deux esthétiques, mais elle permet aussi une lecture nouvelle et originale de l’opéra. Nous évaluons à la fois les exigences résultant de l’articulation opéra-cinéma et les solutions apportées par les réalisateurs pour répondre à ces contraintes, bien souvent musicales. La réflexion se concentre dans la seconde partie sur l’aboutissement de cette union, tout d’abord à travers l’analyse de l’interprétation visuelle de la musique fournie par les réalisateurs pour chacun des films du corpus, selon une approche thématique. Elle montre comment l’image mobile transcrit la musique, comment l’écriture cinématographique traduit visuellement la partition et peut accroître la dimension émotive. Enfin, elle s’intéresse à la réception de ces films en France et en Italie, en vue de mesurer l’accueil reçu par chacun auprès de la critique, partagée entre démocratisation de l’opéra et vulgarisation de l’art lyrique
The "opera film" corresponds to the encounter between two art forms envolving specific staging rules. It combines the requirements of opera and cinema alike whilst endeavouring to promote their mutual enrichment. In this dissertation I analyse the relevance of this encounter from a creative point of view. I intend to highlight the risks, stakes and artistic appropriateness of the opera film. The body of works has a Franco-italian dimension: it includes five films produced by Daniel Toscan du Plantier (Joseph Losey's Don Giovanni, Francesco Rosi's Carmen, Luigi Comencini's La Bohème, Frédéric Mitterrand's Madama Butterfly and Benoît Jacquot's Tosca) as well as two other films which he did not produced: La Traviata and Otello, by Franco Zeffirelli, also belong to this opera film "wave". First of all, I examine Daniel Toscan du Plantier's cultural policy as a producer. Indeed, it was thanks to him that this cinematic genre flourished significantly in the 1980s. I aim to define the creative context of these films and to understand his commitment towards their promotion as well as his genuine interest for Italian culture. I then move on to analysing the technical difficulties as well as the creative licence which results from screen adaptation. On the one hand, the cinematographic writing of opera implies concessions in staging and requires a position be taken in respect of aesthetics, cinematographic and opera. On the other hand, it also triggers a new and original reading of opera. I assess the requirements which result from the opera-cinema articulation and the solutions, often musical, proposed by films directors confronted to these constraints. In Part II I focus on the achievements of this union, first by thematically analysing each director's the visual interpretation of music provided in the films included in the body of works. I argue that the moving image transcribes music, that cinematographic writing translates the music score visually and that it can enhance the emotional dimension. Finally, I examine the response to these films in France and in Italy, especially through the critics divided between the democratisation of opera and the vulgarisation of lyric art

Adaptation Studies suffers from a deficiency in the study of black, brown, yellow, and red adaptive texts, adaptive actors, and their practices. Adaptive Acts intervenes in this Eurocentric discourse as a study of adaptation with a (queer) POC perspective. My dissertation reveals that artists of color (re)create texts via dynamic modes of adaptation such as hyper-literary allusion, the use of meta-narratives as framing devices, and on-site collaborative re-writes that speak to/from specific cultural discourses that Eurocentric models alone cannot account for. I examine multi-ethnic American adaptations to delineate the role of adaptation in the continuance of stories that contest dominant culture from marginalized perspectives. And I offer deep adaptive readings of multi-ethnic adaptations in order to answer questions such as: what happens when adaptations are created to remember, to heal, and to disrupt? How does adaptation, as a centuries-old mode of cultural production, bring to the center the voices of the doubly marginalized, particularly queers of color? The texts I examine as “adaptive acts” are radical, queer, push the boundaries of adaptation, and have not, up to this point, been given the adaptive attention I believe they merit. David Henry Hwang’s 1988 Tony award-winning play, M. Butterfly, is an adaptive critique of the textual history of Butterfly and questions the assumptions of the Orientalism that underpins the story, which causes his play to intersect with Pierre Loti’s 1887 novella, Madame Chrysanthéme, at a point of imperial queerness. Rodney Evans, whose 2004 film, Brother to Brother, is the first full-length film to tell the story of the black queer roots at the genesis of the Harlem Renaissance, uses adaptation as a story(re)telling mode that focalizes the “gay rebel of the Harlem Renaissance,” Richard Bruce Nugent (1906-1987), to Signify on issues of canonization, gate-keeping, mythologizing, and intracultural marginalization. My discussion of Sherman Alexie’s debut film, The Business of Fancydancing, is informed by my own work as an adaptive actor and showcases the power of adaptation in the activation of Native continuance as an inclusive adaptive practice that offers an opportunity for women and queers of color to amend the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene writer-director’s creative authority. Adaptive acts are not only documents, but they document movements, decisions, and sociocultural action. Adaptation Studies must take seriously the power and possibilities of “adaptive acts” and “adaptive actors” from the margins if the field is to expand—adapt—in response to this diversity of adaptive potential.

While most research has rightfully focused on sexism and racism in 'Madame Butterfly' texts (Marchetti 1993; van Rij 2001; Morris 2002; Koshy 2004; Prasso 2005; Park 2010), this thesis argues that stereotypical protagonists and narrative themes from Puccini's fin de siècle opera, Madama Butterfly, reappeared after wars in Korea and Vietnam and in the first years of the new millennium as prototypes for two traumatic, sub-textual 'ghosts' suppressed in public discourses: an 'unmanly', psychologically-wounded Western subject-as-perpetrator, and a scarred Asian woman, the civilian victim of Western atomic and incendiary weapons, an almost un-representable figure. This thesis draws on a variety of fields, including literary trauma theory (Mandel 2006; Weaver 2010; Visser 2011; Balaev 2015), military masculinity studies and social psychology. It examines, in close readings within cultural, historical contexts, the synergies between trauma and moral (thèmis) conflict represented in a selection of twentieth century 'Madame Butterfly' narratives, primarily by ex-military writers, at three significant moments in history: firstly, 1880-1912; secondly, post-WWII from 1950-1980, including the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Vietnam Conflict; and, thirdly, from the 1990s to the early 2000s, the turn of the new millennium. 'Moral conflict' in this thesis refers to Shay's definition of thèmis as 'just order' or 'what is right' (Achilles in Vietnam 5) and to the idea that a disjuncture between thémis and experience can cause psychological damage (Shay Odysseus in America 33). Examples of novels representing this disjuncture include Fifth Daughter by Hal Gurney (1957), Jere Peacock's Valhalla (1961), James Webb's The Emperor's General (1999), and Anthony Swofford's Exit A (2007). The examination of twentieth-century reconstructions of Madama Butterfly's gendered and racist stereotypes in these novels has found evidence supporting Gilman's notion (in Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race and Madness) that stereotyping reveals much about the fears and anxieties of those producing the stereotypes, that 'pathology' in human cognition stems from 'disorder and loss of control, the giving over of the self to the forces that lie beyond the self' (Gilman 24), to trauma. This thesis examines the notion that Madame Butterfly stereotypes and themes allowed veterans 'to write about the war' for an uncomprehending public, as did Salinger in Catcher in the Rye. Along the way, the thesis also attempts to understand why Western men should have maintained such an emotional attachment to a quaint fin de siècle literary figure for an entire century.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2017.

碩士
東吳大學
音樂學系
92
Madam Chiu Yu Lang has had 30 years of on-stage performance experience and enjoys international fame. She has participated in numerous performances, and most excels at "Madame Butterfly". This paper hopes to make use of Madam Chiu''s valuable experience in order to better equip performers of "Madame Butterfly" with approches of their own. This paper discusses , which is the most famous aria in Puccini''s "Madame Butterfly", for the purpose of understanding Puccini''s life and the background and styles of his work. This paper also walks you through the ups and downs of the renowned vocal musician - Madam Chiu Yu Lang during her years of further studies. Through precise fine-tuning by Madam Chiu, one can truly appreciate the skills involved in refining the performing of this song. Madam Chiu thoroughly analyzes this temperamental song in terms of its speed change, tone control, breath and timbre adjustment, as well as the creation of ambience. All these factors contribute to increased understanding and room for performance versatility for a performer. Finally, I hope the study of < Un bel di vedremo> can take the skills of vocal performers to the next level.

碩士
東吳大學
音樂學系
96
The topic of this research is the four Arias of the opera 《Madama Butterfly》written by Giacomo Puccini. Before singing, a singer must have some understanding to the background of the composer’s creation, the style of his music, the structure of the music and ways of applying skills. To further understand this Aria, ones have to be aware of the impact of realism on operas in 19th century. The life of composer Giacomo Puccini and his composing stytle also need to be understood in studying his music the content of the opera《Madama Butterfly》 and musical characteristics of Arias. From the basic elements of the musical structures of the singing style, one can compare the differences among singing interpretation to this Aria by different singers: Maria Callas、Mirella Freni and Renata Scotto. And in turn one comes to know how to better express composer artistical styles.

碩士
國立彰化師範大學
英語研究所
92
Abstract People’s views on gender, race, and culture experience change through different times and spaces. Under the interweaving of different times and spaces, different genders, races, and cultures produce different ideas and values. The view on the sexes in the traditional society reveals the sexism—the superiority of men and the inferiority of women. Men are the only and whole concern for women. Women must accept men’s dominations willingly. In sexual orientation, heterosexuality is the gender norm. The other sexual orientations such as homosexuality and bisexuality are the deviations. In race, Western races are the spokesmen of supremacy, and Eastern races are inferior to them. Moreover, in culture, Western cultures are regarded as advanced and the leaders among the world cultures. However, people’s views on Eastern cultures are old and exotic. As time goes by, under the influence of the idea of global village, the interactions among countries are frequent in modern time. People’s views on gender, race, and culture also change. Instead, the ideas of the equality between two sexes, the diversity of sexual orientations, the union of races, and the interaction of multiple cultures are encouraged. Traditional and modern views on gender, race, and culture can be found through the reading of Madama Butterfly and M. Butterfly. Through the interactions among characters, and the analysis of identities and power relations, the change from binarism to diversity sheds light.

by Cheung Ki Kitty.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-126).
Abstract also in Chinese.
Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 2 --- La boheme (Mimi) --- p.7
Chapter 3 --- Tosca (Tosca) --- p.26
Chapter 4 --- Madama Butterfly (Cio Cio San) --- p.45
Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.62
Appendix --- p.68
Bibliography --- p.123

博士
國立臺北藝術大學
音樂學系博士班
104
Abstract This dissertation mainly explores the musical borrowings and cultural implications in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. This study has found that Puccini used fourteen musical borrowings in the opera, including the national anthem of USA, “the Star-Spangled Banner”, two Chinese folk songs, and eleven Japanese folk songs. Puccini took into account the specific historical background and cultural contexts of these musical borrowings. He imbedded these melodies into the opera with a variety of textures but maintained most of the musical borrowings to a recognizable degree. The purposes of the musical borrowings are to show the associations and empathy with the art of geisha and character of Cho-Cho San as well as symbolize Japanese nationality, identity and the cultural conflicts from the East to the West. In this dissertation, I analyze the text, the devices and the structure of the musical borrowings with the focus on the content and the extent of the correlation between these borrowings and the new musical context. If a listener knows the hidden text of a quoted folk song or other metaphors in the lyrics, then he or she can understand the rich cultural implications in the opera. The last chapter of the dissertation focuses on the reception and criticism of Madama Butterfly. It contains the reception of Miura Tamaki, the first internationally renowned native Japanese Madama Butterfly as well as outsiders’ and insiders’ receptions of her. It also examines the reason why she was recognized by Puccini as an “ideal Madama Butterfly” in 1920, and the criticisms of musicologists with regard to this opera. The results of this dissertation show that Puccini had made effective use of musical borrowings to powerfully arouse the historical association of the opera with Japanese cultural implications. This is the main reason why Madama Butterfly has been one of the most popular and successful Italian operas. My dissertation reflects Barthes’s claim, “the death of the author”, which leaves the interpretation of a text to the readers (interpreters) over the composer (the interpreted). Therefore it stands for my understanding and interpretation of Madama Butterfly.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1993.
Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-79).