Call for Papers

First Opera Studies Conference at the Amazon Opera Festival:

Opera and decoloniality in Latin America

The Amazon Opera Festival presents its first Opera Studies Conference which this year will coincide with the meeting of the Latin America Opera (OLA) in Manaus (BRA). The conferences will take place on the 21st May 2023. For this first edition the event will approach the subject “Opera and decoloniality in Latin America” as well as subjects related to the operatical performances and historical and analytical topics about the genre.

How can decolonial epistemology help us to rethink Latin American opera, both canonical and contemporary? Which decolonial practices have been used by operatic institutions and productions in Latin America? How can academic studies and opera productions establish a dialogue with other perspectives, views, and historiographies? How can Latin-American opera approach the representation of those who were set apart throughout our histories?

To think the creation, performance, and expressivity of opera as a path to discuss decoloniality requires to think of a hybrid Latin-America on what concerns its cultural heritage: the result of a rupture of what is traditional and what is modern; what is cultivated and what is popular. That generates a deep impact on the way the arts and the culture world operate in the modernization of Latin America.

The event will be divided in 4 sessions in which after a conference of 30 minutes made by a keynote speaker, there will be 2 presentations of 15 minute each. These presentations will be selected by the scientific committee. In case of interest, please send an abstract of maximum 200 words to the email address jornadadeestudosfao@gmail.com . Papers may be presented in Portuguese or Spanish.

Scientific Committee:

Dr. Ligiana Costa and Dr. Bruno M Braga.

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Ligiana Costa – Opera and Decolonialism thru dramaturgism

Dr. Bruno Braga – A feather ornament and nothing else: indigenous representations in Brazilian opera

Edna d’Oliviera: Black Music in America – black women in Brazilian Opera

Maestro Pedro Salazar – title to be confirmed.

 

Deadline for proposals: April 5, 2023

The results will be announced by email from April 15th