The Indian Picture Opera

The Indian Picture Opera is a magic lantern slide show devised by photographer Edward S. Curtis in the early twentieth century. Curtis devoted considerable effort to documenting Native American tribes through his twenty-volume book series, The North American Indian, which includes approximately 2,400 photographs together with studies of the tribes of the American West.^[1]

Background

In 1911, Edward S. Curtis created The Indian Picture Opera to assist in the promotion and sale of his book series, The North American Indian. This travelling slide show utilised a Stereopticon projector to display his photographs on screens in various cities across the United States. An orchestra provided live music throughout the presentations, drawing inspiration from Native American chants and rhythms. Curtis himself delivered the narration, offering explanations of the images and recounting stories about the Native American communities he had spent several years photographing and studying.^[2]

Reception

The Indian Picture Opera achieved its greatest success in New York City, where it was reviewed by several newspapers. The Evening World, the evening edition of The New York World, reported that the audience “taxed the capacity of the auditorium” and was “lifted out of the prosaic into the wild, romantic life” of Native Americans, from “the first pictures with barbaric, colourful musical setting to the last example of Mr Curtis’s photographic art”. Another New York newspaper, the New-York Tribune, provided a more informative perspective, describing the opera as “a decided addition to the authoritative information the present generation has of the race found on the continent”.^[2]

The show was described widely as a box office hit and highly entertaining for the audience. Despite the fairly positive reviews by the newspapers, the 1911–1912 and 1912–1913 tours were unprofitable due to the costs associated with traveling the country with a show of their size and fees to be paid along the way such as payments to the venue owners, transport for the orchestral crew, food and supplies, advertising etc..., and were stopped shortly after the company financing Curtis' endeavors went out of business.^[2]

Historical context

Curtis documented the Indigenous peoples of the continent, particularly those in the West, as he considered it important to record what he regarded as a “vanishing race”. In accordance with prevailing attitudes among Americans at the time, Curtis believed that Indigenous peoples would eventually be assimilated into American society, and that their cultures, traditions, and languages would disappear entirely as more of their land was taken.^[3]

Curtis was experiencing financial difficulties due to the Panic of 1907; therefore, to sustain his life's work, he presented the opera as a means of generating income.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

The opera reinforced racial stereotypes associated with Indigenous peoples due to Curtis's tendency to portray them as fundamentally different from the white population in order to emphasise their uniqueness. This approach led many to perceive Indigenous peoples as uncivilised in comparison.^[3]

Modern reinterpretation

Curtis's influence extended beyond his lifetime, with his visual documentation of Native American tribes continuing to serve as a valuable resource frequently cited in cultural and academic discussions. In 2006, a modern remake of The Indian Picture Opera was released on DVD. This version adhered to Curtis's original script, with the music reinterpreted within a contemporary multimedia format. The remake sought to preserve Curtis's original presentation while rendering it accessible to present-day audiences.^{[citation needed]}

Related works

In 1914, building on the success of The Indian Picture Opera, Curtis produced and directed In the Land of the Head Hunters, one of the earliest feature-length films to feature an exclusively Native American cast. This film further demonstrated his commitment to documenting Indigenous cultures, although it also attracted criticism for its staged scenes and fictionalised representations.