Original scientific paper
Between Anime and Opera: Female Characters in Kōji Morimoto's Animated Film Magnetic Rose
Irena Paulus
; Umjetnička škola Franje Lučića, Velika Gorica
Abstract
Japanese director Kōji Morimoto has created characters, script, scenography, music and other elements of his animated film Magnetic Rose on the basis of two Puccini’s operas, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. He designed the main character, the operatic singer Eva, after Puccini’s heroines, Floria Tosca and Cio-Cio-San. Eva sings two arias and a duet from Puccini, interpreted by Maria Callas and adapted for the film by composer Yōko Kanno. The article explores how librettos and their literary predecessors, theatrical plays La Tosca by Victorien Sardou and Madama Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan by David Belasco, provide parallel readings or even the Urtext of Morimoto's film; it explains how operatic heroines’ tragic destiny (typical for operatic style verismo) influence film’s catharsis and how Aristotle’s understanding of the Greek tragedy (via Sardou’s understanding of the notion of pièce bien faite) permeates the structure of Magnetic Rose.
Keywords
female characters; anime; opera; Magnetic Rose; Tosca; Madama Butterfly
Hrčak ID:
288000
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2022.
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