IR/PS Puts Focus on Regional Arts, Cultural Activities

New Program Series Includes Co-hosting of
‘Madame Butterfly’ with San Diego Opera Board

April 27, 2009

IR/PS Professor Peter Gourevitch provided background on Japan and the historical context for “Madame Butterfly,” in a cultural affairs program held in collaboration with the San Diego Opera at the Faculty Club on April 17.

As the nation’s leading program for study of the Pacific, the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies has undertaken a series of cultural affairs programs that highlight the arts in the region and here in San Diego.

On April 17, for example, the IR/PS International Advisory Board co-hosted a joint program with the San Diego Opera Board, on its forthcoming presentation of “Madame Butterfly,” featuring Ian Campbell, general director of the Opera, Nicolas Reveles, the Opera’s education director and Peter Gourevitch, professor of political science.

Gourevitch, founding dean of IR/PS, is a passionate fan of the opera and, as a distinguished student of international affairs, situated the Opera in the historical context of Japan’s relationship to the world.  The arrival of the U.S. Navy in Tokyo Bay in the 1850s forced Japan to open its closed borders and society.  The opera was written just before Japan’s defeat of the Russian Navy in 1905 and its subsequent growth as world power.

“Madame Butterfly reflects the choices Japan faced in how to respond to these outside influences, and the interaction of culture, power, sexual attraction, and conflict, ” Gourevitch said.

Campbell and Reveles gave an overview of 19th and 20th Century opera history and discussed the continuous reinterpretations of various productions in the art form.  Campbell spoke of opera’s ability to inspire passions, fears and happiness and said a goal of the San Diego Opera is to find just the right way of mixing design, music and story at a given moment in time.  “In the current production of Butterfly, “as Campbell put it, “we want to make the audience think about power and the different forms it can take.”

The San Diego Opera will present Madame Butterfly in performance at the San Diego Civic Center May 9, 12, 15, 17 and 20.

The collaboration with the San Diego Opera is emblematic of the emphasis by the school on the arts.  There are also annual events hosted by student groups that include a Latin American Festival, which features dancing and music, and a celebration of the Asian New Year, which highlights ethnic cultural traditions.  The school has undertaken successful programs with the San Diego Museum of Art and the La Jolla Music Society.  Additional projects are in the planning stage.