Imagining Opera: Ideas of Western Opera in the British India, Singapore and Shanghai (1860s-1920s)

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is on how “opera” as an idea was received and adapted beyond the Western world, in particular in these Asian regions: the British India, Singapore, and China. The thesis includes four topics: the relationship between travelling opera troupes and the European community in Singapore, opera burlesques in black face minstrelsy in the British India, Malay opera Bangsawan in Singapore and Li Jinhui’s children’s musical drama in Shanghai. This research attempts to answer three groups of questions: 1. In colonial cities in Asia, how did overseas Westerners and natives understand European opera as a cultural import? Was the opera culture in Asian colonies the replication of that in Europe? Moreover, was this culture transplanted directly from Europe? How did opera become an icon of colonial culture and stimulate the overseas Westerners’ collective imagination to it? 2. What is the relationship between canonic opera, including opera works and operatic conventions, and theatres derived from the canonic opera but belonging to popular culture, for instance, opera burlesques by minstrel actors? 3. Further the thesis attempts to investigate: how did Western opera influence native theatrical practices in Asia? And how did natives react and adapt the new ideas of musical theatre imported from the West and backed by Western powers? These questions are important not only for understanding the reception history of Western opera in Asia but also for inquiring how has “opera” become a global musical concept.

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