The Department of Music Theory hosts a lecture by distinguished guest scholar and SMTD alum Nancy Rao (MM ’89, voice and music theory; PhD ’94, music theory), and author of the forthcoming book, Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth-Century California and Beyond. This event honors Rao’s 2024 Professional Achievement in Music Award from the SMTD Alumni Board.
Cantonese opera was woven into the Chinese community’s cultural, financial, social, and family life in 19th-century California. Yet excavating its music and performing history is nearly impossible, not only because of archival hierarchy but also due to various forms of erasure. This lecture addresses the challenge, particularly the need to ‘listen for the unsaid, translate misconstrued words, and refashion disfigured lives.’ It begins by discussing how a laborer’s diary entries give color to the faded image of 19th-century Chinese theater in San Francisco and pull us into its everydayness. It then considers the theater institutionally as an expression of the transpacific community. At conclusion it considers the music and significance of a 1903 recording of Cantonese opera.