An interview with Jun Kaneko
The great visual artist of "Madama Butterfly"
The great visual artist of "Madama Butterfly"
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
“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 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. Madison just experienced Kaneko’s art onstage.
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.
“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 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. Madison just experienced Kaneko’s art onstage.
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.
(Above) Jun Kaneko; (below) part of his
stage design and some of the costumes
for Madison Opera’s “Madama Butterfly”
performed at the Overture Center on
Nov. 21 and 23, 2008.
stage design and some of the costumes
for Madison Opera’s “Madama Butterfly”
performed at the Overture Center on
Nov. 21 and 23, 2008.
| A warm Madison reception for Jun Kaneko and Madison Opera's "Madama Butterfly" |
| A warm Madison reception for Jun Kaneko and Madison Opera's "Madama Butterfly" |