An interview with Jun Kaneko
Kaneko’s art onstage
Kaneko’s art onstage
| Heidi M. Pascual* Publisher & Editor * 2006 Journalist of the Year for the State of Wisconsin (U.S.-SBA) |
movement. And then I started to do some drawings. When I felt that maybe I could handle it, I said, OK, I’ll do it. But it took me three years.”
Like a student of a new art form, Kaneko spent the first year watching about a dozen actual productions of Butterfly all over the U.S., finding that
most stage designs and costumes were traditional Japanese, except a few new productions. “So my first challenge was: Where am I going to set
the design concept? Will I go traditional or contemporary, or something in between? I was curious as to how much I could go toward the
contemporary direction. So I did a very radical design at the beginning, but after a couple of months, I felt there was a real gap between the
story and the opera itself to my design. You look at the design itself without thinking about the opera, and it was fine. But the design has to go
with it, so I thought I’m creating too much gap between my design and the opera. I started to go some place in between, with a couple of
designs, and then I started to see possibilities. By then, I’d already spent several months. So the way I work is, I really don’t set the conceptual
direction. In anything I do, I do it, and then look at it, evaluate it, and then define whatever good possibilities I see out of it and then keep on
defining it. In this opera, I did that, that’s why it took me three years.”
“This has been one of the most difficult challenges and one of the most exciting creative experiences I have had in my life,” Kaneko wrote
in his catalog that documents the creation and process of making this new Madama Butterfly. Maybe I was lucky that I did not have any prior
knowledge of opera production. If you have no idea, you have no fear.”
Collaborative work
While Kaneko admitted that the conceptual design was his, he stressed that Madama Butterfly is really a collaborative effort. “You have to
have a great stage theater and the people involved have to understand my basic concept, as I have to understand their work in this production,”
Kaneko said, affirming his belief in team work and respect for each other’s role. “So even the final outcome of the design itself depended on the
stage director and the lighting designer, for instance. It was very critical for my design. You have to respect one another; otherwise, it doesn’t
work.” He expressed his appreciation for Opera Omaha for listening to his opinions and his choice of team members. “They did a lot of research
and brought in people for me to interview!”
His wish for injecting some contemporary art was achieved through the addition of video projections moving in and fading out, which also
provided a visual time element on stage.
Not surprisingly, Kaneko’s outstanding stage design for Madama Butterfly has attracted new clients from the theater industry. “The director of
the Philadelphia Opera Company came to see Madama Butterfly, which was then being performed in Honolulu,” he said. “He came to me right
after the production and said, ‘I want you to do Fidelio.’ I answered, ‘I don’t even know what Fidelio is,’ and he started to explain to me the story.
I had other commitments so I wasn’t sure if I could do that because the production schedule of Fidelio was 18 months away. But he called me
every day the whole week, so I decided to look at my calendar, cut lots of things out, then I told him, ‘OK. I’ll do it.’ The premiere was done last
month. It’s a complete redesigned opera.”
While Kaneko’s reputation as a great stage designer grows, he misses his individual work in his studio. “My plan is not to do opera for five to
six years,” he said. “It really slows down my studio work. I’m not a professional opera designer; but I’m interested now. I can’t help it. I’m really
sucked into opera, but I still want to do my own work in the studio. So that’s going to be always the problem.”
Whether or not Kaneko gets his wish soon remains to be seen. The fact remains that his art work for Madama Butterfly opera opened a new and
wide field for him that fully explores his exceptional capacity to integrate visual art — in many forms — beautifully onto any stage.
Like a student of a new art form, Kaneko spent the first year watching about a dozen actual productions of Butterfly all over the U.S., finding that
most stage designs and costumes were traditional Japanese, except a few new productions. “So my first challenge was: Where am I going to set
the design concept? Will I go traditional or contemporary, or something in between? I was curious as to how much I could go toward the
contemporary direction. So I did a very radical design at the beginning, but after a couple of months, I felt there was a real gap between the
story and the opera itself to my design. You look at the design itself without thinking about the opera, and it was fine. But the design has to go
with it, so I thought I’m creating too much gap between my design and the opera. I started to go some place in between, with a couple of
designs, and then I started to see possibilities. By then, I’d already spent several months. So the way I work is, I really don’t set the conceptual
direction. In anything I do, I do it, and then look at it, evaluate it, and then define whatever good possibilities I see out of it and then keep on
defining it. In this opera, I did that, that’s why it took me three years.”
“This has been one of the most difficult challenges and one of the most exciting creative experiences I have had in my life,” Kaneko wrote
in his catalog that documents the creation and process of making this new Madama Butterfly. Maybe I was lucky that I did not have any prior
knowledge of opera production. If you have no idea, you have no fear.”
Collaborative work
While Kaneko admitted that the conceptual design was his, he stressed that Madama Butterfly is really a collaborative effort. “You have to
have a great stage theater and the people involved have to understand my basic concept, as I have to understand their work in this production,”
Kaneko said, affirming his belief in team work and respect for each other’s role. “So even the final outcome of the design itself depended on the
stage director and the lighting designer, for instance. It was very critical for my design. You have to respect one another; otherwise, it doesn’t
work.” He expressed his appreciation for Opera Omaha for listening to his opinions and his choice of team members. “They did a lot of research
and brought in people for me to interview!”
His wish for injecting some contemporary art was achieved through the addition of video projections moving in and fading out, which also
provided a visual time element on stage.
Not surprisingly, Kaneko’s outstanding stage design for Madama Butterfly has attracted new clients from the theater industry. “The director of
the Philadelphia Opera Company came to see Madama Butterfly, which was then being performed in Honolulu,” he said. “He came to me right
after the production and said, ‘I want you to do Fidelio.’ I answered, ‘I don’t even know what Fidelio is,’ and he started to explain to me the story.
I had other commitments so I wasn’t sure if I could do that because the production schedule of Fidelio was 18 months away. But he called me
every day the whole week, so I decided to look at my calendar, cut lots of things out, then I told him, ‘OK. I’ll do it.’ The premiere was done last
month. It’s a complete redesigned opera.”
While Kaneko’s reputation as a great stage designer grows, he misses his individual work in his studio. “My plan is not to do opera for five to
six years,” he said. “It really slows down my studio work. I’m not a professional opera designer; but I’m interested now. I can’t help it. I’m really
sucked into opera, but I still want to do my own work in the studio. So that’s going to be always the problem.”
Whether or not Kaneko gets his wish soon remains to be seen. The fact remains that his art work for Madama Butterfly opera opened a new and
wide field for him that fully explores his exceptional capacity to integrate visual art — in many forms — beautifully onto any stage.
| (Top Left Visual artist Jun Kaneko journalized his step-by-step journey through conceptualizing and executing what he later thought were the most appropriate stage design and costumes (Left) for Madama Butterfly opera, considering the available technology of the times, the budget, the resulting visual effect to a big audience, and his creative genius. (Above) the cover of his journal, which includes his sketches and the opera’s beautiful visual outcome in photos. |
By Heidi M. Pascual
“Commissioning (Jun Kaneko) specifically to design a
production for a work like Butterfly, which has definite narrative
and emotional constraints as well as an established production
history, is far more radical and certainly a more challenging
demand. Here he is charged with creating sets against which a
powerfully emotional drama is to be enacted, and costumes that
bear a significant symbolic weight … The incentive for Kaneko is
to see if his art can be made to express all this (the universal
human meanings of passion, love, betrayal, courage, and
remorse), and at the same time touch the hearts of those who
come to his production in the expectation that they will be moved
by the experience.” — Arthur C. Danto, “Art Into Opera”—Art Critic,
The Nation; Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at
Columbia University, New York
I watched Madison Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly at the Overture Center last fall, expecting to be
moved by such an experience. Indeed, I was moved, big time,
not because of the beautiful music and rendition of songs, but
because of the awesome stage design and colorful costumes
created by Jun Kaneko, a world-renowned ceramic artist who had
never designed a stage production until Madama Butterfly.
Perhaps my expectation was heightened by the conversation I
had earlier in the day with Kaneko at a reception hosted by Diane
Ballweg in her beautiful home facing Monona Lake. Perhaps the
aggressive promotion for Butterfly in Madison created that
extraordinary curiosity on my part. Perhaps I wanted to feel proud
of Kaneko, a Japanese American whose excellence in visual art
has placed him above tons of others. When I left the theater,
Kaneko occupied the top of my list of Asian American artists
whose creativity springs fiercely regardless of medium, form, time
and space. This Madama Butterfly is definitely Jun Kaneko’s
creation, even as he insists it is a collaborative effort.
The challenge
“Commissioning (Jun Kaneko) specifically to design a
production for a work like Butterfly, which has definite narrative
and emotional constraints as well as an established production
history, is far more radical and certainly a more challenging
demand. Here he is charged with creating sets against which a
powerfully emotional drama is to be enacted, and costumes that
bear a significant symbolic weight … The incentive for Kaneko is
to see if his art can be made to express all this (the universal
human meanings of passion, love, betrayal, courage, and
remorse), and at the same time touch the hearts of those who
come to his production in the expectation that they will be moved
by the experience.” — Arthur C. Danto, “Art Into Opera”—Art Critic,
The Nation; Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at
Columbia University, New York
I watched Madison Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly at the Overture Center last fall, expecting to be
moved by such an experience. Indeed, I was moved, big time,
not because of the beautiful music and rendition of songs, but
because of the awesome stage design and colorful costumes
created by Jun Kaneko, a world-renowned ceramic artist who had
never designed a stage production until Madama Butterfly.
Perhaps my expectation was heightened by the conversation I
had earlier in the day with Kaneko at a reception hosted by Diane
Ballweg in her beautiful home facing Monona Lake. Perhaps the
aggressive promotion for Butterfly in Madison created that
extraordinary curiosity on my part. Perhaps I wanted to feel proud
of Kaneko, a Japanese American whose excellence in visual art
has placed him above tons of others. When I left the theater,
Kaneko occupied the top of my list of Asian American artists
whose creativity springs fiercely regardless of medium, form, time
and space. This Madama Butterfly is definitely Jun Kaneko’s
creation, even as he insists it is a collaborative effort.
The challenge
“I’m not an opera fan and I didn’t know anything about opera,” Jun Kaneko said, admitting his lack of
experience in stage productions. “In visual art, you make all decisions, whatever you want to do in the
studio, and you’ll be responsible for what you did. But in the theater, it doesn’t work that way. So I wasn’t
sure if I could work with other people in a really positive way, so I told them (Opera Omaha leaders) I
needed three months to figure it out.”
But Kaneko’s preparation took more than three months. “In the opera, music is first, so I listened to
Madama Butterfly (opera music) maybe two to three times every day for about three months.” Kaneko
recalled. “Then I started to have some ideas and to understand the whole story of opera and
experience in stage productions. “In visual art, you make all decisions, whatever you want to do in the
studio, and you’ll be responsible for what you did. But in the theater, it doesn’t work that way. So I wasn’t
sure if I could work with other people in a really positive way, so I told them (Opera Omaha leaders) I
needed three months to figure it out.”
But Kaneko’s preparation took more than three months. “In the opera, music is first, so I listened to
Madama Butterfly (opera music) maybe two to three times every day for about three months.” Kaneko
recalled. “Then I started to have some ideas and to understand the whole story of opera and