3:30 PM
Dr. Jane Forner (University of Toronto) presents "Operatic Encounters Across the Mediterranean: Cultures of Collaboration"
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Musicology, Ethnomusicology and Music Theory Graduate Colloquium Series
Jane Forner, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, presents "Operatic Encounters Across the Mediterranean: Cultures of Collaboration."
Room 130, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen's Park, Toronto
FREE
Abstract
This talk centres on case studies of contemporary operas by Arab diasporic artists working in Europe. Focusing on the last two decades, I situate the work of these composers, musicians, and librettists within the sociocultural contexts of the current political landscape in Europe, particularly with regards to migration, as reflecting anti-colonial and transnational operatic practices that both challenge the boundaries of the genre and insist on a conception of opera that eschews a western European hegemony. My talk offers snapshots of operas that form the core case studies of my book project-in-progress, which each combine multiple languages and musical traditions, and frequently use allegory and myth as well as recent sources to scrutinise current political themes and to function, in some cases, as activist art. I discuss in detail on two recent works, both premiered at the Festival Lyrique in Aix-en-Provence, Kalîla wa Dimna (2016) and L’apocalypse arabe (2021). Although diasporic cultural production has been more substantially documented in scholarship on theatre, literature, popular music, and ethnomusicological studies, my research both draws on these existing areas while extending common focuses on multilingualism, intercultural collaboration, and cultural representations of migration and diaspora through analyses of hitherto unexamined repertoire and musicians. I pay critical attention to how (post)colonial legacies shape the complex power dynamics in intercultural musical collaborations as well as forming a conceptual framework through which to interpret performances and reception. Throughout, I examine how the Mediterranean is positioned as a locus of artistic and political inquiry, analysing the often conflicting ways in which different artists and institutions deploy the rhetoric of a “shared Mediterranean heritage”—from musical, linguistic, textual, and dramaturgical perspectives, as well as in the day-to-day minutiae of collaborative projects.
All colloquia take place from 3:30 to 5 pm, unless otherwise noted, with a reception to follow from 5 to 6 pm.