Japanese Opera Singer Confronts Prejudice

[Mulboyne]

[GuyJean]

So, in summary; In Europe I wasn't promoted because they are racist. But in Japan, I wasn't promoted because I wasn't promoted in Europe..

She needs to deep-throat my throbbing Figaro cock.

GJ

[Mike Oxlong]

Don't forget - she's a success now because she's obviously ten times better than any European, American, excusez-moi...white opera singer.

[unkosando]

It's a shame that she faced discrimination in Austria.

I think she should quit opera and fight racism with the healing power of gospel music.

She could join this band.

[kamome]

Well, there's one Japanese at least who understands what discrimination on the basis of being a foreigner feels like.

[Jack]

Okay, let's see who else is gonna shit on her (this story) because she is Japanese? The thread has already gone down the sewer and we are not yet into the sixth reply.

[hundefar]

She needs to deep-throat my throbbing Figaro cock.

which woman doesn't??

[unkosando]

[Greji]

Okay, let's see who else is gonna shit on her (this story) because she is Japanese? The thread has already gone down the sewer and we are not yet into the sixth reply.

Well, this is when I left her to come to work today....Is that alright with you Jack? I mean she does look so much older without her makeup, but I wouldn't want you to stuff her in the sewer just yet, even if she is a Japanese...

[Takechanpoo]

Fuckin sneak European dudes.
As I thought, we Japanese should discriminate white dudes to balance.
If we Japanese are blamed by whites about dicrimination in Japan, we neednt to feel guilty.

[Greji]

Fuckin sneak European dudes.
As I thought, we Japanese should discriminate white dudes to balance.
If we Japanese are blamed by whites about dicrimination in Japan, we neednt to feel guilty.

Take, I don't understand! You say sneak European dudes, than you advocate discriminating against whites?

Many whites are not from Europe. Who is it that you really want to fuck with?

Shouldn't you just be saying all whites? But then again, since you want so dearly to breechload some blond, read any blond, maybe that shouldn't be all whites.....

Please explain more clearly, so we are able to understand exactly which set of paranoid choppers are a chomping on your knickers!

[L S]

Gratuitous naked pictures on a thread about Opera and discrimination. Shocking!

[Catoneinutica]

Graz, Austria - heh.

Two points:

1. Shout out to Ahhnuld!

2. A lot of Central and Eastern Europeans haven't read the BBC/NPR Political Correctness Manual. We had a Japanese tour guide in Prague complain that sometimes Czechs wouldn't sit next to her on the subway because they thought she was - oh, the humanity! - Vietnamese.

[Behan]

She was mistaken for Vietnamese? Poor girl.


Feel sorry for the Vietnamese, really.
I hear Japanese people here get indignant when confused for foreigners. What, do they want me to feel sorry for them?

[Catoneinutica]

She was mistaken for Vietnamese? Poor girl.


Feel sorry for the Vietnamese, really.
I hear Japanese people here get indignant when confused for foreigners. What, do they want me to feel sorry for them?

They do want you to feel sorry for them because they feel genuinely offended. I just today talked to a J-lass who recently came back from a trip to Paris, and she complained about all the folks there saying NI HAO to her. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if some of the folks there were winding her up because they know Japanese haaate being mistaken for other East Asians. They better savor the flavor though, because the proportion of other East Asian overseas tourists to Japanese overseas tourists is growing by the day.

[hundefar]

They do want you to feel sorry for them because they feel genuinely offended. I just today talked to a J-lass who recently came back from a trip to Paris, and she complained about all the folks there saying NI HAO to her. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if some of the folks there were winding her up because they know Japanese haaate being mistaken for other East Asians. They better savor the flavor though, because the proportion of other East Asian overseas tourists to Japanese overseas tourists is growing by the day.

Danish people (I live in Denmark) hate being mistaken for Swedes, and even worse: Germans. So if you ever meet a Dane, make sure that you pretend that you think they're German.

[Catoneinutica]

Danish people (I live in Denmark) hate being mistaken for Swedes, and even worse: Germans. So if you ever meet a Dane, make sure that you pretend that you think they're German.

There's a Cherman guy from Mecklenburg living here in Karuizawa who looks typically Scandinavian, but as soon as he opens his mouth you realize he's one of the biggest German rednecks that ever drove an Audi. He's like one of those insects that gives the appearance of being an herbivore until you get too close to it and it turns out to be a raging carnivore.

-catone
-how do you tell a Swede from a Dane?

[hundefar]

-how do you tell a Swede from a Dane?

Obviously there's the language. But it won't help much if you don't speak either of them. The best way to discern between them is that Swedes are usually better dressed and more polite than Danes. It is easier if you have a Swede standing beside a Dane right in front of you though.

[Jack]

I was going to suggest that maybe she slept her way to the top but from the looks of her... I don't think that is possible. She must really be 10 times better than any - "sorry! white singer." But then again who really gives a shit about Opera anyway.


I do shit on her and her story. There are many people out there who have faced incredible discrimination but somehow made it to the top of their game. You don't hear all of them whining about it.

Name one. Every single one of them whines about it. Start with African American success stories in America.

[Behan]

Danish people (I live in Denmark) hate being mistaken for Swedes, and even worse: Germans. So if you ever meet a Dane, make sure that you pretend that you think they're German.

I had a good laugh reading this. Thanks.

[Mulboyne]

By all accounts she is an excellent performer and her huge break came last year where she impressed audiences even though she was only in a relatively minor role. Since this is the only article where she has touched on prejudice in her career, it is too early to say whether she is whining about it: her answers might just have followed the line of questioning by the interviewer.

There is no doubt that many Asian performers are now recognized as world class classical musicians after years of being disparaged as merely "technically excellent". However, it has taken longer for inroads in ballet and much longer in opera. Ballerinas were accepted more easily because there are many petite Japanese dancers who complement their male partners. It was much more difficult for male dancers to be accepted as a principal. Testuya Kumakawa was often dismissed as "tricksy" and people doubted whether he could successfully partner a tall girl. He was such a dazzling performer that, though, that he was made a principal with the Royal Ballet and they solved the partner problem by having him dance with shorter ballerinas - just as ballet companies have always done with any male dancer under six feet tall.

The opera world has been even slower to accept Asian performers. A lot of this is down to poor pronunciation: no matter how good your voice, you won't get hired in Europe if you can't carry off the piece in Italian or German. It's wrong to speak ill of the dead but this duet by Minako Honda and Akira Fuse immediately comes to mind:

[YT]BtLhSk0SRlg[/YT]

It's an unfair comparison because neither Honda nor Fuse are professional opera singers but they have decent enough voices to carry a recital and yet wouldn't get away with that pronunciation in Europe.

However, it is undeniable there is a common prejudice that opera is best sung by non-Asians even when the character is Asian (I'm a little surprised that she draws a contrast exclusively with white singers because there are notable examples of leading black and hispanic singers). If you suggested a Japanese male opera singer to most directors, they probably subconsciously have an image of some Meiji Era samurai dressed in a tight suit and wearing an ill-fitting top hat. It's certainly a prejudice and possibly even racist but it would be easy to imagine a Japanese audience having a hard time accepting a non-Asian kabuki or noh performer.

[amdg]

They better savor the flavor though, because the proportion of other East Asian overseas tourists to Japanese overseas tourists is growing by the day.

But yeah, I was in Italy last week hitting all the typical tourist places and the ratio of Korean/Chinese:Japanese, at least at the tourist destinations, was about 70:30.

Edit - and Cantone, I was expecting you to bust out some operatic experience of your own in this thread

[Takechanpoo]

Take, I don't understand! You say sneak European dudes, than you advocate discriminating against whites?

Many whites are not from Europe. Who is it that you really want to fuck with?

Shouldn't you just be saying all whites? But then again, since you want so dearly to breechload some blond, read any blond, maybe that shouldn't be all whites.....

Please explain more clearly, so we are able to understand exactly which set of paranoid choppers are a chomping on your knickers!

Whites are doing the same thing all over the world.
Or they think want to do in the bottom of heart.

[unkosando]

Name one. Every single one of them whines about it. Start with African American success stories in America.

Morgan Freeman suggests we don't even talk about racism.

Link

[Mike Oxlong]

Maybe Fujimura never heard of some other Asian opera singers...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumi_Jo

Sumi Jo (born November 22, 1962)is a South Korean operatic soprano.

Jo attended Sun Hwa Arts School in Seoul, Korea and graduated from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in 1985 after three years of study in keyboard and vocal music.

In 1986, she made her operatic debut as Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto at Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste. This debut performance attracted the attention of Herbert von Karajan, for whom she sang the role of Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera opposite Plácido Domingo at the Salzburg Festival after an audition in 1988. Karajan, who died the following year, called her "a voice from heaven."

Since then, she has performed all the great coloratura roles including the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute , the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Fiorilla in Il turco in Italia and Amina in La sonnambula at the world's major opera houses, under conductors such as Sir Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, and Richard Bonynge.

She also shared a Grammy for Best Opera Recording in 1992 for Richard Strauss' Die frau ohne schatten [1].

She also provided a vocalise for the soundtrack of The Ninth Gate, composed by Wojciech Kilar. The main theme of this film is based on a piece by Camille Saint-Saëns.

A Korean male opera singer has done well for himself in the US...
http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=45365

[Greji]

Whites are doing the same thing all over the world.
Or they think want to do in the bottom of heart.

Is that why you do this in Japan to non-Japanese?

[Catoneinutica]

It's not for nothing that the cliche has it, "It's not over 'til the fat lady sings." Most J-chix simply don't have the body mass to project a powerful, glass-shattering singing voice. I personally think they ought to set their sights on period-instrument productions, where they can get by with a thin, girlish voice a la Emma Kirkby.

Or maybe it's just that Japanese can't understand Western classical music.