The Butterfly Project
Photo: Janet Kimber.
About
Puccini’s famous opera, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, is reimagined by interdisciplinary creator-performer Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 into THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT バタフライ・プロジェクト. As a constantly living and evolving work, THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT highlights the original intention of these appropriated melodies and brings them into the 21st century with live and recorded sounds, electronics, and classical singing in both Italian and Japanese.
Peformances Summer 2023
THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT will be presented four times this summer with new sound media artist Andrea Wong, the first being in partnership with Toronto Summer Music Festival, then two performances at Theatre Gargantua’s Sidestream Festival of New Works in Welland, ON, and then finally at Canada’s historic Japanese cultural festival, Powell Street Festival, running its 47th season in Vancouver, BC. See below for details and dates. View photos from the latest performance on Jul 12 at Toronto Summer Music Festival. Photos by Lucky Tang.
UPCOMING PERFORMANCE
Aug 5, 2023 at 2:15 pm - FREE EVENT
Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver BC
Powell Street Festival
Andrea Wong, new media sound artist
About the Artists
Nikkei Canadian settler Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野 (they/them) is a queer, trans non-binary “artist with extraordinary things to say” (The Globe and Mail) who explores the intersections of identity through opera, theatre, and electronics. Based in Tkarón:to, Teiya has sung many roles, including the Queen of the Night from THE MAGIC FLUTE (Canadian Opera Company, Aalto-Essen, Vancouver, Edmonton). They are the creator/performer of the acclaimed show THE QUEEN IN ME, and a co-founder of Amplified Opera. For more information visit www.teiyakasahara.com.
Andrea Wong (she/her) is an emerging new media artist and sound designer based in Vancouver, Canada. Her musical background stems from classical piano and Canadian folk fiddle, and her most recent sound design work specialized in interactive mediums including virtual reality games. She discovered an interest in sound and technology and a love for cross-discipline collaboration co-creating interactive media performances as a programmer with musicians and dancers in Sonic UBC Laptop Sounds and Sensors (SUBCLASS). With a passion for experimentation and learning, Andrea is pursuing using technology to create meaningful and accessible immersive experiences. Her current musical practice is focused on creating unique relationships and dialogues through free improvisation. She performs on the zheng with Spencer Schoening on the drum set in experimental improvisatory duo, Public Dreams. For more information visist www.ahwong.com.
The Origin Story
“In January 2020 I had the privilege to sing my first ever Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. For many reasons, this was a meaningful and momentous occasion for me professionally and personally. There’s nothing like the swell of an orchestra behind you to take up your voice and let it soar over top, and an orchestra playing the music of the great Giacomo Puccini is like no other. As a Nikkei (Japanese diaspora) Canadian settler based in Toronto, I also can’t help but think critically of this work and of many other works that exist in the operatic canon that have appropriated many cultures, and perpetuate violence through racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. Yet, we still produce these works today, still at times with no critical lenses or discourse to be had. As one of the most famous operas ever to have been written, I have found some peace with singing this role (and other appropriated roles) by creating discourse around the work and being able to use my creativity to live in it and continue to engage with it today. In the original Madama Butterfly, Puccini told the story of Cio-Cio San. In my reimagination, Chōchō-san (蝶々さん) comes back to tell her own version of the story, beginning where that story leaves off.
“I call this particular creation a ‘project’ because I don’t think it will ever be finished, nor do I think this type of work should finish: (un)learning and (un)doing, (un)seeing and cultivating an intentional awareness concerning where our most prized canonical works come from. It is only by understanding lived histories and through constant humility that I believe we can find ways to reimagine operas such as Madama Butterfly anew.
“The Butterfly Project has been performed in small iterations since 2019 (Soundstreams, Women From Space Music Festival, and as a video with Aga Khan Museum’s Pocket Performances and Confluence Concerts most recently in 2022). This summer it will be performed live four times (Toronto Summer Music Festival, Sidestream Festival of New Works, and Powell Street Festival - Vancouver) with new media sound artist, Andrea Wong.”
— Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野
PAST PERFORMANCES
Jul 26 & 27, 2023
Sidestream Festival (Welland, ON)
Jul 12, 2023
Toronto Summer Music Festival
Feb 11, 2022
Confluence Concerts Video Presentation (Butterfly Symposium)
Mar 6, 2020
The Burdock, Toronto
“The Butterfly Project reimagines and re-instills the original Japanese cultural inspiration appropriated for this work by elevating the Japanese melodies quoted in the opera, fore-fronting the Japanese language, and various Japanese instruments, mostly created electronically.”
Interview with curator Marion Newman and creator Teiya Kasahara (Feb 26, 2021):
“Madama Butterfly is a divisive opera that people feel strongly about. There are many issues to unpack in the work, but we can lose sight of nuance when we reduce the discussion to ‘should be performed’ or ‘should never be performed.’ Amplified Opera is excited to be involved in this symposium because it will lean into the challenging conversations around Madama Butterfly and shed light on some of the many possible pathways forward for this work.”