Q4:

Kabuki is a form of theatre that integrates music. Compare and contrast Kabuki to the history and development of opera or American musical theatre.

According to the articles read for this week I have found several similarities and contradictions between Kabuki and Western musical theatre. According to James R. Brandon in his article “Kabuki: Changes and Prospects: An International Symposium,” the author states the similarities between American musical theatre and Kabuki, which creates an appeal for westerners to watch the Kabuki performance, “Using some of these productions as examples, I noted the characteristics of kabuki that appeal to American audiences: powerful, controlled movements and gestures; elaborate stage settings; stunning costumes and makeup; and kabuki's "musicality." (255).

            Similar to American musical theatre, kabuki features music and performance on a single stage. Takechi Tetsuji wrote an article translate by William Lee, “Artistic Direction in Takechi Kabuki,” which details Tetsuji’s attempt to revitalize kabuki. In naming one similarity between opera and kabuki, the author states, “Kabuki's theatrical and performance style is probably more suited to the creation of musical drama. This is because the contradiction between the musical and the dramatic-which is also a problem in opera for which arguably no adequate solution has been found-has achieved a relatively simple dialectical resolution in the theatrical art of kabuki,” (18). This article states very plainly that Takechi did take ideas from Western theatre in his attempt to recreate the dynamics of Kabuki, “At the same time he became active as a director and embarked on a series of theatrical productions that included not only his own brand of kabuki but also a number of other experiments which drew on other Japanese theatrical traditions such as no and kyogen as well as the modern Western theatre and even opera,” (13).

            However, some believed at one point that in revitalizing kabuki directors should draw from opera types of musical theatre. Brandon wrote, “While some Europeans liked kabuki and some did not, they all agreed that ‘the moving, striking representation of real life is indeed the distinctive mark of the Japanese stage’-a view quite opposite to that of kabuki’s native reformists. Japanese dignitaries reported back from Europe that opera and ballet-classical, high arts-should be the models to reconstruct kabuki.” (262). 

Monica Strauss