SFT tickets now on sale

Spring Festival in Tokyo started their ticket sale this morning. In March and April, over 20 concerts and recitals are scheduled, including Lohengrin in concert performance, Das Lied von der Erde and Angelika Kirchschlager's recital. Best or affordable seats seem to be selling well.

Highlights in Dec 2010

Tokyo Chamber Opera
Francesco Cavalli: La Calisto [Japan première]
4 & 5 Dec @ Shibuya Cultural Center Owada

Tokyo Opera Produce
Franco Alfano: Cyrano de Bergerac [Japan première]
11 & 12 Dec @ The Playhouse, NNTT

NNTT
Tristan und Isolde [New production]
25 & 28 Dec (till 10 Jan 2011)
*Sold out (Day tickets could be available.)

Trovatore and Lohengrin in NNTT's next season

New National Theatre, Tokyo has announced about two new productions for their next season, which are Il trovatore as the season opener in October 2011 and Lohengrin in June 2012.

According to the theatre, Il trovatore will be performed on 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 October. Walter Fraccaro sings Manrico. American nova Takesha Meshé Kizart as Leonora. Young Italian conductor Pietro Rizzo takes the baton for stage direction by Ulrich Peters, current intendant of Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. Azucena and Conte di Luna aren't announced but according to some sorces Andrea Ulbrich and George Gagnidze will sing the roles.

Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin celebrated the theatre's first season in 1997. Now the opera comes back to the stage. Klaus Florian Vogt and Ricarda Merbeth sing the title role and Elsa. Peter Schneider conducts for a new production by Matthias von Stegmann. The evil couple, Ortrud and Telramund, are to be announced. Six performances on 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16 June 2012 are scheduled.

Complete programme of 2011/12 season will be announced in January 2011.

Arabella and Tristan in NNTT's next season

Today NNTT announced part of their next season, new productions of Arabella in October 2010 and Tristan und Isolde in December 2010 and January 2011. Ulf Schirmer and Philippe Arlaud will present the former with costumes by Hanae Mori on 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 October, which seems to be the opening for 2010/11 season. The latter is performed under the baton of Kazushi Ohno and directed by David McVicar on 25 and 28 December and 4, 7 and 10 January. No singer name is given, but popular ones are expected. The whole programme will be announced in January.

OA to release 2 Bayreuth live recordings

As announced in August by the festival authority and written about dates by WagneroperaNET on Twitter, Opus Arte is releasing 2 recent live recordings at Bayreuth: Ring cycle in 2008 (CDs) and Tristan und Isolde in 2009 (DVDs and Blu-rays). The Ring cycle set is scheduled for release on 26 October according to Presto Classical, an online shop, and Amazon.co.uk but Opus Arte seems to put the date on 1 November. For the Tristan DVDs, the shop announces the date as 4 January 2010, and for Blu-rays Amazon the one as 26 October, yet the label nothing. The authority makes no reference to details. Anyway, they come to hand soon.

Tokyo Ring's ticket sales to start soon

Ticket sales for general public of the latter half of Keith Warner's Tokyo Ring by NNTT in this spring start in this weekend, on Saturday for Siegfried and Sunday for Götterdämmerung. Sales for members of Club the Atre, friends of NNTT, began on 10 October and many tickets has already been bought especially on holidays and weekends. Therefore it is so difficult to purchase good or unexpensive ones, but worth trying. The former half — Das Rheingold and Die Walküre — was performed in the last spring and got much applause.

SFT announces 2010 festival season

Friday, Spring Festival in Tokyo announced their programme 2010. From 14 March to 10 April, some 40 performances will be held in Ueno, mainly Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. The most interesting one is Parsifal in concert form on 2 and 4 April, which will be conducted by Ulf Schirmer and sung by Burkhard Fritz and Michaela Schster. The second one is a concert which Riccardo Muti conducts Carmina Burana with a special orchestra for the festival, Desiree Rancatore, Max Emanuel Cencic and Ludovic Tézier sing (9 and 10 April). Other interesting performances are a recital by Yuu Kosuge on 26 March and one by Ricarda Merbeth on 5 April. Ticket sale starts on 28 November.

Ettinger designated for TP's Chef

Tokyo Philharmonic announced yesterday that from April 2010 Dan Ettinger takes a baton as their Chief Conductor.