Opera japonica/Contents (original) (raw)

Reports

Our regular 'Letters' from America, London, Milan, and Paris provide comprehensive coverage of opera internationally, illustrated with photographs of the productions. Occasional 'letters' cover other opera centres and festivals, such as Aix-en-Provence, Berlin, Brussels, Glasgow, Salzburg , Stockholm and Wexford.

This Month in Tokyo has information about current productions here, while the Opera Calendar has Japanese production schedules going forward to 2005.

Surveys

In 2000 there were a total of 233 professional performances in the Tokyo area, including both opera and operetta, stage and unstaged works. How did Tokyo compare with other international opera centres? See Simon Holledge's Opera japonica International Survey 2000.

Photo Essays

Ruth Elleson contributes The New London Coliseum: A Personal Appreciation to celebrate the re-opening of the home of the English National Opera in 2004. The text is accompanied by the photographs of Grant Smith.

Interviews

In-depth Opera japonica interviews have included the singers Barbara Bonney, Juan Diego Flórez, Galina Gorchakova, Susan Graham, Catherine Naglestad and Dario Volonté, the conductor Kazushi Ono, the composers Daniel Catán and Minoru Miki, the opera photographer Ken Howard, and the opera administrators Ian Campbell, Richard Gaddes, Speight Jenkins, and Hiroshi Oga.

Reviews

Michael Richter looks at Seventy Years of Issues: Historical Vocal 78rpm Pressings from Original Masters 1931-2001, The Operagoer's Guide by M. Owen Lee, Charles Mintzer's biography of Rosa Raisa, the great dramatic soprano of the early 20th century who created the role of Turandot, and a history of the Teatro Solìs opera house in Montevideo by Susana Salgado.

Vicki Kondelik reviews three autobiographies, My Parabola, by the great Italian baritone, Titta Ruffo, The Extraordinary Operatic Adventures of Blanche Arral (1864-1945), and Playing My Part by the great Wagnerian soprano, Frida Leider, and one biography, Rosa Ponselle: A Centenary Biography by James A Drake. Lane Earns of Wisconsin Oshkosh University reads Jan van Rij's Madame Butterfly: Japonisme, Puccini, and the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San.

Mike Leone reviews seven CD-ROM collections: the Mapleson Cylinders and Some Wagner Collections, Men of Empire, House of Opera Tosca CD-ROM. Stars of David: Music by singers of Jewish heritage, San Francisco Opera (Volume 1), The Operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer, and The Operas of Richard Wagner.

The collection of Tokyo Reviews by Simon Holledge dates from 1998 to 2001. There are also a number of opera synopses.

DVD project

Project editor Michael Richter contributes an An Introduction to the DVD together with a growing collection of DVD Reviews.

Tokyo Information

Tokyo Opera Venues has a list of theatres and halls with contact information. The Tokyo Opera Companies section describes the Byzantine structure of the 'industry' in Tokyo and why everything is exactly the opposite of what anyone would expect! Tokyo Ticket Agencies is for those people with sharp wits, inside information, exceptional stamina, and great wealth who want to buy tickets in Tokyo.

Links

Other Websites lists opera-related links within Japan.