Tag - opera

 
 

OPERA

Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 29, 2014
Millepied's L.A. Dance Project arrives with a triple bill of disparate delights
Two years after its inaugural performance, L.A. Dance Project is already a must-see company. In part that's because its founder and artistic director is the legendary French-born ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied — but also because of its trendy innovations in contemporary dance and modern art.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 12, 2014
Playboy model, cheap seats lure youth to Royal Opera House's opener of 'Anna Nicole' in London
The Royal Opera House rolled out the red carpet for young people on Thursday for season opener "Anna Nicole," based on the life of the late American stripper and Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith whose voluptuous surgically enhanced cleavage attracted a billionaire.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 13, 2014
'Sleep' dances toward another world
As a dancer, choreographer, philosopher and now professor in the Department of Scenography Design, Drama and Dance at Tama Art University in Setagaya, Tokyo, Saburo Teshigawara has been extending the range of his talents ever since he stopped studying visual arts and sculpture to begin learning ballet at the age of 20 in 1973. That was before he switched direction again, in 1981, to experiment with videomakers, sound artists and other performers in search of what he terms a "new form of beauty.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 2, 2014
High-energy Ono conducts a rare 'Hoffmann' critique
He is known best for the rapturously hysterical "Infernal Gallop" (aka "The Can-can") from his 1858 operetta "Orpheus in the Underworld," but the German-born, naturalized-French composer Jacques Offenbach (1819-80) is credited with just one full-length, serious opera — "The Tales of Hoffmann" — which opens for a short Tokyo season this weekend.
CULTURE / Stage
May 2, 2014
Designer Hanae Mori on stage again with costumes for opera 'Yuzuru'
Hanae Mori, a revered Japanese fashion designer with a career on world catwalks since the 1960s, showed her unflagging creativity when she designed costumes for a recent revival of the Japanese opera "Yuzuru."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 26, 2014
Chasing a Phantom of success
Based on "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra," a 1911 novel by the French author of detective fiction, Gaston Leroux, and transformed into a musical composed, co-written and produced by Englishman Andrew Lloyd Webber (now Baron Lloyd-Webber), "The Phantom of the Opera" was first produced in London in 1986 and went on to be a huge hit worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 13, 2014
Ueno Park to welcome springtime with a song
The cherry trees of Ueno Park are inspirational in full bloom. Come early spring and Tokyoites head to the area early to snag spots beneath the pink blossoms, which inspire romance, revelry and perhaps more than a few visionary ideas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 12, 2014
Paris Opera Ballet chief hails Japan 'challenge'
Thanks to Louis XIV's love of dance, French is the language of ballet and Paris has remained the center of the art for more than 300 years since the Sun King's splendiferous 72-year reign ended with his death in 1715.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Mar 2, 2014
Composer Shibuya tests limits of music
One November evening in Paris, Theatre du Chatelet was packed with people who came to see the French premiere of a new opera by a Japanese composer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 19, 2014
ABT brings 'magical moments' to Japan
Last August, with summer sweltering the city, I met Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews, two soloists from the New York-based American Ballet Theatre, one of the word's top-four classical companies along with the Royal Ballet in London, Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi in Moscow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 4, 2014
First female conductor at NNTT performs 'Madama Butterfly'
Japanese audiences, especially women, may have mixed feelings about Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 22, 2014
Hiraki Sawa’s dream world: Worth the pause for thought
Sometimes it can be irritating visiting an exhibition of video-based art. You come in halfway through one of the videos or near the end of another, and you feel that you've missed something and wonder if you should stick around to watch it from the start.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2013
Conductor proud of first opera at Kiyomizu
Hirofumi Yoshida, 45, said he could feel Italian opera blending with Japanese spirituality when he conducted two new short works at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in October.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2013
Polish soap opera gives actor a chance to shine
A Japanese actor has been enjoying popularity among Poles after joining the cast of Poland's most-watched soap opera.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 13, 2013
An audience with Sylvie Guillem
There are many wonderful ballet dancers the world over, but Sylvie Guillem is undoubtedly in a category of her own — and not only because of her famously self-willed ways.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2013
Japanese collectors take a conceptual turn
Echoing the choice of Koki Tanaka — a conceptual artist — for the Japanese pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale this year, "Why Not Live For Art? II: 9 collectors reveal their treasures" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery suggests that art collecting in Japan has taken a conceptual turn.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 10, 2013
'Why Not Live for Art? II: 9 Collectors Reveal Their Treasures'
First held in 2004, this exhibition is the second by Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery to present works owned by individual collectors. In the past 10 years, art collecting has become more common and the network between collectors has expanded. As the gallery revisits the world of private acquisitions, it also reflects on how art collection has changed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2013
The humor of candid camera
With the advent of the digital camera, mobile phones and social networking, the world is now drowning in photographic imagery. This raises the question: Can photography survive as an art form in a world where it is ubiquitous?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 15, 2013
Classical community unites to celebrate bicentennials of Verdi and Wagner
This year marks the bicentennials of the births of two great composers: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and Richard Wagner (1813-83), both giants of the classical music world who brought opera to the peak of its artistic expression in the 19th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Mar 19, 2010
Curator Shihoko Iida reveals lessons learned from stint at foreign museum
Japan's art world is occasionally compared to the Galapagos Islands — and not just because it is inhabited by some curious creatures; sorry, I mean artists.

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree