The Fujiwara Opera is Japan's leading company performing Italian and French Opera. It is managed by the Japan Opera Foundation together with the Nihon Opera Kyokai, which performs Japanese opera. The Nikikai Opera is Japan's leading company performing Mozart and German opera. None of these companies have permanent venues.

 

The New National Theatre was opened in 1997. It has a fine opera house in Shinjuku with excellent acoustics. It sometimes stages its own productions but it is still heavily dependant on expertise from the Fujiwara and Nikikai Operas with which it has co-productions. So far the New National has not organized a company or a house orchestra, though there is a chorus. The post of artistic director rotates at three year intervals between the Fujiwara and the Nikikai. The present artistic director is Kiyoshi Igarashi, former general director of the Fujiwara. His job there has been left vacant.

 

Two other special organizations regularly organize opera with professional singers: Tokyo Opera Production (Produce) and the Citizenry of Tokyo Opera Society.

 

Tokyo's two main opera-playing bands are the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra. (There is a proposal to merge the two in 2002). Kazushi Ono, the brilliant former principal conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic has a series of semi-staged performances called 'Opera Concertante' that have been amongst the best of Japan's operatic events.

 

Two halls that are mainly for hire also have their own events: Tokyu Bunkamura Inc., that manages the Bunkamura arts complex in Shibuya, have one big production in the spring of each year. Their Turandot went to the Edinburgh Festival in 1999. Suntory Hall in Akasaka is Japan's premier concert venue. A series of semi-staged operas called Hall Opera are presented there with well-known foreign artists.

 

A number of organizations are actively involved in bringing foreign opera companies to Japan. Some of these are sponsors, such as major television companies. Fuji Television, for example, regularly sponsors the Bologna Opera in Japan. Others are promotion agencies working with both sponsors and visitors. Ticket prices for the famous companies from Western Europe and America are the highest in the world: up to 65,000 yen (500 US dollars) a seat. This is roughly double the price of opera-going at the Salzburg Festival!

 

List of operas (arranged by composer) performed in Japan (1934-99)
by local Japanese and visiting foreign companies

 

Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle (A kékszakállú herceg vára)

Beethoven: Fidelio

Bellini: I Capuleti e I Montecchi, I Puritani, La Sonnambula, Norma

Berg: Lulu, Wozzeck

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust

Berte, after Schubert: Das Dreimädelhaus

Bizet: Carmen, Les Pêcheurs de Perles

Britten: Let's Make an Opera, Peter Grimes

Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur

Cimarosa: Il matrimonio secreto

Clutsam and Berte, after Schubert: Lilac Time

Dallapiccola: Volo di notte

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande

Donizetti: Anna Bolena, Don Pasquale, La favorita, L'elisir d'amore, La Favorita, Lucia di Lammermoor, Maria Stuarda

Falla: La vida breve

Galuppi, Baldassare: L'Italiana in Oriente (L'inimico delle donne)

Giordano: Andrea Chénier, Fedora

Gounod: Faust

Hadley, Henry: Bianca

Henze: Elegie fur junge Liebende

Honegger: Jeanne d'Arc au bucher

Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel

Janacek: Jenufa

Kalman: Die Csardasfürstin

Lehár: Das Land des Lächelns, Die lustige Witwe

Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana, L'amico Fritz

Massenet: Manon, Thaïs

Menotti: Amelia Goes to the Ball, The Consul, The Medium, The Telephone

Montemezzi, Italo: L'amore dei tre re

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, Le nozze di Figaro

Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov

Offenbach: Le contes d'Hoffmann

Puccini: Gianni Schicchi, Il Tabarro, Il Trittico, La bohème, La Fanciulla del West, Le Villi , Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut , Suor Angelica, Tosca, Turandot

Ravel: L'heure espagnole

Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, Otello

Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila

Schoenberg: Moses und Aron

Strauss, J II: Die Fledermaus

Strauss, R: Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Salome

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

Thomas: Mignon

Verdi: Aida, Don Carlo, Falstaff, Il trovatore, La forza del destino, La traviata, Macbeth, Nabucco, Otello, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra , Un ballo in maschera

Wagner: Das Rheingold, Der fliegende Holländer, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Die Meistersinger, Die Walküre, Götterdämmerung, Lohengrin, Siegfried, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde

Weber: Der Freischütz

Weill: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny

Wolf-Ferrari: I quattro rusteghi, Il Campiello

 

Japanese works

 

Akutagawa, Yasushi: Kurai Kagami

Aoshima, Hiroshi: Tasogare wa Oma no Jikan

Bekku, Sadao: Aoinoue, Sannin no Onnatachi no Monogatari, San-nin no Onnatachi no Monogatari

Dan, Ikuma: Takeru , Yokihi (Yang Kwei-fei), Yuzuru (Twilight Crane)

Hara, Kazuko: Father Kibe, Iwai Uta ga Nagareru Yoruni, Shita wo Kamikitta Onna, Sute Hime, Yosakoi Bushi

Hayashi, Hikaru: Amanjaku to Uriko-hime

Hirota, Ryotaro: Nishiura no kami

Ikebe, Shinichiro: Shinigami

Irino, Yoshiro: Aya no Tsutsumi

Ishii, Kan: Kesa to Morito

Ishiketa, Mareo: Mofuku, Sotobakomachi

Kanai, Kikuko: Hiren Karafune

Kanno, Hirokazu: Issoppu no Mori 

Katsuki, Osamu: Warashibe Choja

Koyama, Kiyoshige: Konyaku Mondo, Sansho Dayu

Makino, Yutaka: Anju to Zushio , Ayame, Kurozuka, Shishiodori no Hajimari

Miki, Minoru: Ada, An Actor's Revenge, Shunkinsho

Mizuno, Shuko: Bijo to Yaju, Tenshu Monogatari (The Tale of Himeji Castle)

Nakamura, Toru: Kijimuna Toki wo Kakeru

Ogura, Akira: Neta

Oguri, Hiroshi: Akaijinbaori

Sato, Makoto: Tsureppu, Yuki-onna Fudoki

Shiba, Yukyu: Mumyo to Aizen

Shimizu, Osamu: Aozora wo Utsu Otoko , Kitchomu Shoten, Shishiodori no Hajimari, Shunkan, Shuzenji Monogatari, Sumiyaki-hime, Yokobue

Sugano, Hirokazu: Gonbougitsune

Takagi, Toroku: Tojin Okichi

 

Please note that this list is (inevitably) incomplete.

 

Oj 21/1/02