Negotiating Convention: Pop-Ups and Populism at the San Francisco Opera

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-450
Author(s):  
MEGAN STEIGERWALD ILLE
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
American Opera ◽  
Pan American ◽  
Dramatic Shift ◽  
A Site ◽  
Opera Production ◽  
Opera Houses

AbstractTwenty-first-century North American opera houses have attempted to bring in new audiences to make up for a declining and aging population of subscribers through means both traditional and unorthodox. The San Francisco Opera's SF Lab Initiative (2015–2018) was created with such goals in mind. Alternative forms of programming, which I categorize as auxiliary programming, have gained traction as a marketing and aesthetic strategy in recent years, and ultimately signal a dramatic shift in approaches to regional opera production in the United States. While scholars have explored the creation and funding of contemporary operatic productions in the United States, little attention has been given to forms of programming beyond the operatic mainstage. Using interviews with company members and analysis of advertising and reception of the events, I examine the SFO Lab programming as a site of negotiation between operatic convention and experimentation. Based on a populist vision of operatic access, the SF Opera Lab re-contextualized rather than eliminated class and intellectual hierarchies. More broadly, this application of experimental performativity contributes to discourses about Pan-American experimentalism(s) and demonstrates the ways in which a focus on local encounters can yield broad applications for genres and/or scenes beyond opera in the United States.

The “Japanese Turn” in Fine Dining in the United States, 1980–2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Samuel H. Yamashita
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
San Francisco Bay Area ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Further Training ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Wide Acceptance

In the 1970s, Japanese cooks began to appear in the kitchens of nouvelle cuisine chefs in France for further training, with scores more arriving in the next decades. Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Joël Robuchon, and other leading French chefs started visiting Japan to teach, cook, and sample Japanese cuisine, and ten of them eventually opened restaurants there. In the 1980s and 1990s, these chefs' frequent visits to Japan and the steady flow of Japanese stagiaires to French restaurants in Europe and the United States encouraged a series of changes that I am calling the “Japanese turn,” which found chefs at fine-dining establishments in Los Angeles, New York City, and later the San Francisco Bay Area using an ever-widening array of Japanese ingredients, employing Japanese culinary techniques, and adding Japanese dishes to their menus. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the wide acceptance of not only Japanese ingredients and techniques but also concepts like umami (savory tastiness) and shun (seasonality) suggest that Japanese cuisine is now well known to many American chefs.

Ambivalent Solidarities

2019 ◽  
pp. 239-254
Author(s):  
Brenda Elsey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Pan American ◽  
And Gender ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Us Intervention

This essay examines the way in which the Cold War shaped the use of sport as a tool of diplomacy in Latin America during the 1950s. It focuses on the Pan American Games in Argentina, Mexico, and the United States. Cultural exchanges failed to dispel suspicion of US intervention; however, athletes shared experiences beyond diplomatic agendas. Recent research has examined how international events shaped participants’ understanding of national, racial, and gender identities. By focusing on women athletes, who historically occupied precarious positions as representatives of the nation, and examining interactions among Latin American delegations, we can understand the Pan American Games as a site of grassroots diplomacy.

Inclusive Publics and Modern Technologies: An Introduction to Three Essays on Early Twentieth-Century American Opera

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-176
Author(s):  
NAOMI ANDRÉ
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Paul Hindemith ◽  
Giacomo Puccini ◽  
Ernst Krenek ◽  
American Opera ◽  
Marc Blitzstein ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
A Site

The three essays brought together in this cluster are immersed in themes that characterize “Americanness” in the twentieth century. They provide a microcosm of critical issues that define opera in the United States during these first decades when the nation helped shape the creation of opera rather than principally being a site for importing European works. Although most of the composers discussed in these articles were born in Europe (Giacomo Puccini, Paul Hindemith, and Ernst Krenek) and only a few in the United States (Marc Blitzstein and George Antheil), all of them spent significant time in the United States, and all of the works discussed are either set in the United States, utilize American characters, or tied to important American themes.

scholarly journals “How Do We Actually Do Convergence” for Disaster Resilience? Cases from Australia and the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shefali Juneja Lakhina ◽  
Elaina J. Sutley ◽  
Jay Wilson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Systemic Risks ◽  
Work Community ◽  
Research Findings

AbstractIn recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on achieving convergence in disaster research, policy, and programs to reduce disaster losses and enhance social well-being. However, there remain considerable gaps in understanding “how do we actually do convergence?” In this article, we present three case studies from across geographies—New South Wales in Australia, and North Carolina and Oregon in the United States; and sectors of work—community, environmental, and urban resilience, to critically examine what convergence entails and how it can enable diverse disciplines, people, and institutions to reduce vulnerability to systemic risks in the twenty-first century. We identify key successes, challenges, and barriers to convergence. We build on current discussions around the need for convergence research to be problem-focused and solutions-based, by also considering the need to approach convergence as ethic, method, and outcome. We reflect on how convergence can be approached as an ethic that motivates a higher order alignment on “why” we come together; as a method that foregrounds “how” we come together in inclusive ways; and as an outcome that highlights “what” must be done to successfully translate research findings into the policy and public domains.

Biosurveillance: A Modern Look

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Lee Brooks
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Current State ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Security Operations

AbstractThe early part of the twenty-first century saw a revolution in the field of Homeland Security. The 9/11 attacks, shortly followed thereafter by the Anthrax Attacks, served as a wakeup call to the United States and showed the inadequacy of the current state of the nation’s Homeland Security operations. Biodefense, and as a direct result Biosurveillance, changed dramatically after these tragedies, planting the seeds of fear in the minds of Americans. They were shown that not only could the United States be attacked at any time, but the weapon could be an invisible disease-causing agent.

Forging Aztecness: Twentieth-Century Mexican Musical Nationalism in Twenty-First Century Los Angeles

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 127-146
Author(s):  
KRISTINA F. NIELSEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Cultural Frameworks ◽  
Music Research ◽  
Siglo Xx

Abstract (Spanish/English)Forjando el Aztecanismo: Nacionalismo Musical Mexicano del Siglo XX en el siglo XXI en Los ÁngelesHoy en día, un creciente número de músicos mexico-americanos en los Estados Unidos tocan instrumentos indígenas mesoamericanos y réplicas arqueológicas, lo que se conoce como “Música Azteca.” En este artículo, doy a conocer cómo los músicos contemporáneos de Los Ángeles, California, recurren a los legados de la investigación musical nacionalista mexicana e integran modelos antropológicos y arqueológicos aplicados. Al combinar el trabajo de campo etnográfico con el análisis histórico, sugiero que los marcos musicales y culturales que alguna vez sirvieron para unir al México pos-revolucionario han adquirido una nuevo significado para contrarrestar la desaparición del legado indígena mexicano en los Estados Unidos.Today a growing number of Mexican-American musicians in the United States perform on Indigenous Mesoamerican instruments and archaeological replicas in what is widely referred to as “Aztec music.” In this article, I explore how contemporary musicians in Los Angeles, California, draw on legacies of Mexican nationalist music research and integrate applied anthropological and archeological models. Pairing ethnographic fieldwork with historical analysis, I suggest that musical and cultural frameworks that once served to unite post-revolutionary Mexico have gained new significance in countering Mexican Indigenous erasure in the United States.

Labor Unions and Undocumented Immigrants: Local Perspectives on Transversal Solidarity During DACA and DAPA

2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052098012
Author(s):  
Els de Graauw ◽  
Shannon Gleeson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Undocumented Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Immigrant Rights ◽  
Deferred Action ◽  
Immigrant Organizations ◽  
Local Perspectives

National labor unions in the United States have formally supported undocumented immigrants since 2000. However, drawing on 69 interviews conducted between 2012 and 2016 with union and immigrant rights leaders, this article offers a locally grounded account of how union solidarity with undocumented immigrants has varied notably across the country. We explore how unions in San Francisco and Houston have engaged with Obama-era immigration initiatives that provided historic relief to some undocumented immigrants. We find that San Francisco’s progressive political context and dense infrastructure of immigrant organizations have enabled the city’s historically powerful unions to build deep institutional solidarity with immigrant communities during the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA [2012]) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA [2014]) programs. Meanwhile, Houston’s politically divided context and much sparser infrastructure of immigrant organizations made it necessary for the city’s historically weaker unions to build solidarity with immigrant communities through more disparate channels.

scholarly journals Programa Bracero y Guerra Fría: auge y declive, 1942–1964

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-35
Author(s):  
Catherine Vézina
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
National Context ◽  
World War ◽  
Bracero Program ◽  
Agricultural Work ◽  
Pan American ◽  
Second World

El Programa Bracero, creado por Estados Unidos y México en 1942 durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se mantuvo hasta 1964. Los estudios sobre este programa señalan la importancia de los intereses domésticos de Estados Unidos para explicar la longevidad del mismo. El presente artículo se enfoca en los factores estratégicos propios de la lógica de la Guerra Fría que intervinieron en la decisión de mantener o cancelar este programa bilateral de trabajo temporal agrícola. Mediante un examen atento sobre la época del auge y del declive del programa, se replantean estos debates dentro del contexto nacional, pero también bilateral y panamericano. The Bracero Program, created by the United States and Mexico during the Second World War, survived until 1964. Studies that look at this program generally signal the importance of domestic factors in the United States to explain its longevity. This article analyzes dynamics of Cold War logic that played a role in the decision of whether to maintain or cancel this bilateral program for migratory agricultural work. By carefully examining the rise and fall of the program, these debates are reconsidered within a national context, as well as one that is bilateral and Pan-American.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document