Hiroshi Wakasugi, 65, recently conducted a presentation of Benjamin Britten's opera "A Midsummer Night's Dream," sumptuously staged by the Nikikai Opera. Hiroyuki Iwaki, 68, recently conducted Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in a brilliant program opening with a clever arrangement by Yuzo Toyama, 69, of Bach's great Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, divided between organ and orchestra. Both programs were striking in conception, superb in execution and altogether memorable.
Nikikai Opera Aug. 5, Hiroshi Wakasugi conducting, Tadashi Kato directing, in Bunkamura Orchard Hall -- "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Benjamin Britten, 1913-76), featuring Chizuru Mitsuhashi, Mayumi Matsuzono, Ryoji Inoue, Akemi Obata, Satoru Aoto, Emi Sawahata, Ken Ohsawa, Yuko Tobe, Susumu Matsumoto, Nobuaki Yoshida, Mitsuhiko Ohno, Izuru Fukuyama, Shigeki Tani, Kazuhiro Kotetsu, Mitsue Hasegawa, Eriko Shibata, Mie Umino, Yumiko Suzuki and Shin'ichiro Uchida, with The Tokyo Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and Nikikai Chorus
As general music director of the Rhein Opera in Dusseldorf since 1982, Wakasugi is richly experienced. As a conducting student at Geidai nearly four decades ago he prepared a performance of this opera which, according to conducting professor Jan Popper, was beautiful and perfect. Nikikai Opera pre-empted the production in order to present it for the Japanese premiere and handed the baton to the older conductor.