Tag - opera

 
 

OPERA

Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage / Backstage Pass
Mar 1, 2018
Rethinking noh for the opera crowd
Artists have long mined older works to create new forms of expression, just look at the continuing relevance of Shakespeare's stories.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Sep 9, 2017
Kano Ozawa breathes fresh air into opera direction in Turin
In the Roman amphitheater of Verona, Italy, the elephants and horses in ancient Egyptian regalia marched onto stage to the thunderous chords of Guiseppe Verdi's opera "Aida." The singers filled the balmy night with their voices, soaring over the trumpets and crashing cymbals of the orchestra — and for one girl watching the spectacle it seemed like "a world of dreams."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 29, 2017
Brave new world of the post-human
Tobias Klein's "Augmented Mask," an installation that incorporates an elaborate 3-D printed mask, colorful projection mapping, a virtual reality headset and references a popular Chinese opera, looks a lot like future art as imagined in science fiction.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Aug 12, 2017
Soprano Misaki Morino follows the music to Vienna
For Misaki Morino, Vienna lives up to both its names: The City of Music and The City of Dreams.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage / Backstage Pass
Aug 3, 2017
Giving Cio-Cio San a better ending
Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" tells the story of a young Japanese girl named Cio-Cio San ("chō-chō" is the Japanese word for "butterfly") marrying and getting dumped by an American naval officer named Pinkerton. First performed in Italy in 1904, the opera is one of the most popular in the world and was reportedly performed more than 2,640 times in the 2015-16 season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 28, 2017
When too many things 'spark joy,' it's a Wonderwall life
Masamichi Katayama, founder of interior design firm Wonderwall, describes the importance of accumulating and keeping objects and artworks in life — even if you have more than 500 of them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 6, 2016
Painting and Weaving Opportunity: Yohji Yamamoto, Yuuka Asakura
Dec. 10-March 12
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2016
Ryan McGinley: youth laid bare
In 1980s America the art scene fawned over the infamous "Brat Pack" group of writers that included Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Donna Tartt and Tama Janowitz. They portrayed American (privileged) youth in that decade like it was — with all their nitty gritty drug taking, vodka swilling and New York club excess. In the mid to late '90s a new crew emerged: not writers per se, but photographers and artists, such as the late Dash Snow and photographer Ryan McGinley. Handed the mantle by filmmakers such as Larry Clark and Gus Van Sant, they set about documenting — and kill me for saying this — "the cultural zeitgeist" of that time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2016
Fujiwara wants the dirt to stick
White often seems to be used in contemporary art in Japan as a kind of short cut to signify "beauty," "purity" or "spirituality." Simon Fujiwara's show "White Day" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery is, as the title suggests, overwhelmingly white, but it's designed not to stay that way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 28, 2016
Opera Theater Konnyakuza perfects a union of stage and song
The world of opera has always found inspiration in the works of William Shakespeare, but adapting them for the stage requires flexibility.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 24, 2016
Kyu Won Han's advice to new opera fans: immerse yourself
Baritone Kyu Won Han says the best piece of advice he can give to opera newcomers is: read up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 24, 2015
Guillem bids adieu to her life of dance
Superstar dancer Sylvie Guillem has come full circle.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 24, 2015
Japan's top ballerina recalls times shared with French star
'Sylvie's retirement fills me with deep emotion. She is truly a ballerina who appears only once in 100 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2015
Seduced by the Undercover labyrinth
It's undeniable that when designer Jun Takahashi founded Undercover — which celebrates its 25th anniversary with its first retrospective at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery — he was strongly influenced by the pioneers of deconstruction fashion Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto. His first few collections from 1994-99 exhibit the unmistakable muted tones, raw edges and asymmetry that his mentors famously used to eulogize imperfections in the 1980s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 8, 2015
Pure landscape photography
The exhibition "Stream of Consciousness" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery is an extremely successful representation of contemporary Japanese photographic art. It combines some of the salient aspects of Japanese culture with the aesthetically formal, yet emotive imagery that is indicative of what gives photography in Japan its particular flavor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 25, 2015
The Royal Opera returns with a double bill to thrill
Lovers of classical music can diffuse summer's heat with some ghostly relief, as The Royal Opera makes its first visit to Japan since 2010 — this time with the spectral pairing of Giuseppe Verdi's "Macbeth" and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Aug 8, 2015
Let the kids get their hands on art
'No, don't touch!" These are probably the most infuriating words for young children to hear when they are being dragged around an art gallery by their parents.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 16, 2015
Just one collector can make all the difference
When Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery opened "Takahashi Collection: Mirror Neuron," it was packed with people keen to see Ryutaro Takahashi's selection of 140 contemporary artworks by 52 artists. It's only the second major showing of pieces owned by Takahashi, a psychiatrist and one of the most influential art collectors in Japan, who also chose the unusual title of "Mirror Neuron" for this show.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 24, 2014
Ballet meets noh in unique 'Feast of Beauty'
No matter what the weather early next year, a really special show being staged once only in Osaka and Tokyo is sure to set ablaze the hearts of noh and ballet fans alike.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2014
Get festive with a legend at Matsuyama's 'Nutcracker'
Christmas in the ballet world means "The Nutcracker," and fans in Japan can take their pick from numerous productions of this mistle-toed magic originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and premiered at the Marinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Dec. 18, 1892, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Longform

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