Conference Agenda

Japanese soprano Toshiko Sekiya (1904-1941) toured extensively in Europe and America from the late 1920s to the early 1930s. At the time, Japanese sopranos were limited to oriental roles, such as Cho-Cho-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, but Sekiya sought to broaden her repertoire by challenging herself with Western female roles. In the summer of 1928, she appeared at the Teatro del Bosque in Barcelona, performing four roles, including Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. Her Violetta was well received, and the following year she was invited to sing the role at several opera houses in Italy. Despite Sekiya’s achievements as prima donna, however, her activities in the West have not been fully discussed in Japan, except for brief descriptions in her biographies (Kubota 1942; Watanabe 1984).

This presentation focuses on Sekiya’s reception in Europe and America, as it provides a valuable example of how Western audiences responded at a time when it was still uncommon for Asian singers to play Western roles. Using newspaper articles, as well as sources held by the Nihonmatsu City Board of Education in Fukushima Prefecture, the hometown of Sekiya's father, I will first compile a detailed timeline of the events leading up to and following her first opera appearance in Barcelona. Based on this chronology, I will analyze descriptions of Sekiya in European and American newspapers and evaluate the significance of her nationality to each critic. For example, one journalist referred to her as a “Japanese soprano” and discussed her voice and acting, while another cited Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysanthème (1887) and described Sekiya as “Chrysanthème” in the Guise of “Violetta,” emphasizing her oriental appearance. Next, I will examine the efforts Sekiya made to secure Western female roles: according to interviews with her, she often changed into a kimono and sang Japanese folk songs on stage after opera performances. Taken together, I will conclude that although Sekiya’s self-presentation as Japanese was an effective marketing strategy to increase her visibility, it may have created a negative impression among some European audiences and contributed to her declining opportunities to sing at opera houses in the early 1930s.