Abstract / Description of output
This essay surveys an operatic geography relatively uncharted: Shanghai of the 1930s and 1940s. The geography in question does not concern the activities, performance spaces or experiences of touring companies and émigré musicians (of which studies exist), but rather, the relationship between opera concerts and foreign territoriality. This relationship is examined by focusing on opera concerts of the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra and British territoriality in the 1930s, and opera concerts of the Shanghai Philharmonic, previously the Municipal Orchestra, and Japanese (anti-British) territoriality in the first half of the 1940s. In examining opera and territoriality across this period, the essay brings to light not only the workings but also the changing conditions of imperial rivalry in Shanghai. The essay concludes with some observations on opera as a distinct imperial emblem, and the broader significance of Shanghai as an operatic geography.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Operatic Geographies |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Place of Opera and the Opera House |
| Editors | Suzanne Aspden |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| Chapter | 11 |
| Pages | 148-161 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780226596150 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780226595962, 9780226596013 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 22 Apr 2019 |