allison.chu [at] yale.edu
Writing
I enjoy writing for multiple audiences, and I am happy to share examples of articles published in a variety of fora. Please reach out via my Contact page with questions or requests!
Dissertation:
Research
"Documentary Opera: Archives, Identity, and Politics in Contemporary American Opera"
Dissertation Advisor: Gundula Kreuzer
My dissertation investigates the trend of new documentary operas, or operas that incorporate documentary techniques, aesthetics, and source materials, that, since 2000, have proliferated throughout the American opera industry. As an analogue to documentary theater, documentary operas draw on sources such as court documents, oral histories, and firsthand written accounts. In particular, I focus on the affordances of new documentary operas for engaging with the genre’s racial dynamics and political resonances, both for artists of color and in broader American culture. Attending to the ways primary sources assist in re-creating specific historical contexts and racialized identities, I argue that opera contributes to documentary work by expanding representations of reality. Simultaneously, documentary operas use the art form’s heavily stylized aesthetics to produce multilayered sociopolitical commentaries about American history and contemporary culture. Combining theater and performances studies approaches with theoretical frameworks from documentary studies, critical race studies, and opera studies, I illustrate how new documentary operas not only contribute to the twenty-first century renaissance of American opera, but also challenge the genre’s long history of exclusion, racism, and inequity.
Articles
The Oxford Handbook of the Television Musical, edited by Raymond Knapp and Jessica Sternfeld (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
In 1922, George Gershwin and Buddy DeSylva premiered a “jazz opera” entitled Blue Monday on Broadway with blackface performance practice and the use of racial slurs. Forming a hybrid genre between opera, jazz, and musical drama, Blue Monday employs parody to exhibit the tensions between “high” and “popular” culture of the time. In 1953, the television series Omnibus broadcast the piece – since renamed 135th Street – as a tribute to Gershwin, with producer William Spier scrubbing the libretto clean of racial slurs and employing an all-black cast for the first time. While 135th Street presented a new genre of theatrical entertainment that appealed to the American public and to Omnibus’ mission to advocate for the performing arts, I argue that the Omnibus 135th Street hardly erased the problematic racial positions of the original version. Implications of racial parody and blackface minstrelsy remain intertwined with the musical score, the characters, and the parody of opera itself, offering insight into the effects of changing societal values on the relevance and social appropriateness of operettas and opera-parody hybrids beyond the time of their composition.
Public Writing
"Reading Between the Lines: A Case for an Operatic Omar"
Dramaturgical Article, Boston Lyric Opera, May 2023
Commissioned for Boston Lyric Opera's program for Omar (2022), by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. This production was Omar's Northeast premiere.
"Omar: A Guide to the Opera"
Educational Guide, Boston Lyric Opera, May 2023
Co-written with Lucy Caplan. Commissioned for Boston Lyric Opera production Omar (2022), by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. This production was Omar's Northeast premiere.
"Voicing Quietness: Madama Butterfly and the Perception of East Asian Women"
The Butterfly Process, Boston Lyric Opera, April 2022
Commissioned as part of Boston Lyric Opera's Butterfly Process, this essay explores the damaging stereotype of "quietness" towards East Asian women and its relationship to opera. This essay highlights trailblazing East Asian sopranos and their portrayals of Cio-Cio-San, examining their reviews in contemporary news publications. Foregrounding personal views, this essay adds to the chorus asking for careful reconsideration of what it means to stage Puccini's Madama Butterfly today.