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November 26, 2024
 

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Benjamin Woodward
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2008
"The Cunning Little Vixen" at Saito Kinen Festival
The Saito Kinen Festival continues to showcase opera from off the beaten track with a production of Leos Janacek's "The Cunning Little Vixen," conducted by festival founder Seiji Ozawa. First performed in 1924 and fashioned out of a newspaper comic strip, this breezy, bucolic fable is Janacek at his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2007
A passion for the classics
Mention "Die Soldaten," B.A. Zimmermann's dark, uncompromising and harrowing work of 1960s modernism, and Hiroshi Wakasugi visibly brightens. It's the first season for this highly respected conductor as artistic director of Tokyo's New National Theater, and he's clearly very, very pleased that he has...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2007
Nights at the opera: picks for the upcoming season
With the publication last week of the new Michelin Guide, the world may now know Tokyo to be the culinary capital that it is. Opera, on the other hand, lags slightly behind, although compared to many other cities there is still an embarrassment of riches, writes Benjamin Woodward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 26, 2007
Playing to tell her tales
Storytelling lies at the heart of Japanese pianist Yu Kosuge's art.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 12, 2007
Be baffled and awed
The New National Theatre, under the aegis of recently appointed director Hiroshi Wakasugi, opens its 2007/8 season with Richard Wagner's 1845 grand Romantic opera "Tannhauser."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007
Soundtrack of the summer: Seiji Ozawa
Under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, some of Japan's top classical musicians gather each year for roughly a month of opera and orchestral concerts. The Saito Kinen Festival showcases an opera, usually something a little offbeat, and this year it's Tchaikovsky's "Pikovaya Dama" ("The Queen of Spades"), based...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007
Soundtrack of the summer: Andrey Boreyko
With tickets for Italian maestro Riccardo Muti's concerts sold out, Russian conductor Andrey Boreyko's concert with Russian pianist and former International Tchaikovsky Competition gold medalist Boris Berezovsky is a good and by-no-means lesser alternative. In fact, it probably has the more interesting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 23, 2006
The real Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The genius, the divinely inspired child, the idiot savant, the skilled populist craftsman, the underappreciated artist in his time who died tragically young in anonymous penury. Every generation makes of him what they will; the legends abound. And 250 years after his birth in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2005
Puccini's masterpiece transcends its age
Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" is one of most beloved operas of all time. Musically rich, dramatically taut and shamelessly wringing every last drop of sentiment from its tale of innocence betrayed, it shows Puccini at the top of his form. Yet its seductive beauty and the emotional immediacy disguise...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2005
The Alban Berg Quartett know Schubert inside out
The Alban Berg Quartett occupies a near-legendary position among string quartets. Their technical fluency, the beauty of their playing, the harmony of their interpretation -- have left critics searching for superlatives and ensured their constant demand in recital halls around the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 27, 2005
Russian diva's voice to die for
"Russians always need a little shit in our lives. If everything is good and we seem completely happy, then we become suspicious of that." This is Russian opera star Anna Netrebko's philosophy -- slightly incongruous for one who, at a glance, seems to have it all and to be enjoying every bit of it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 13, 2005
Kent Nagano conducts former collaborator Takemitsu
Kent Nagano is nothing if not a very busy man. The musical director of the Los Angeles Opera, the artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin, and the guest director of many world-famous orchestras, the California native is in demand as one of the most popular opera...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 16, 2005
A baroque approach
With his keen, adventurous musical intellect and an interpretative idiosyncrasy that breathes new life into the standard repertoire, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey is fast assuming a hallowed place in the cellist pantheon. Influenced by the revolutionary Early Music movement in the Netherlands under...
Taiwan stuns Samurai Japan to capture Premier12 title
Japan starter Shosei Togo reacts after allowing a three-run home run against Taiwan in the fifth inning of the Premier12 final on Sunday.
Japan and U.S. to form missile plan in case of Taiwan emergency
A U.S. Marine Corps M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force Type 12 Surface-to-Ship Missile (12SSM) system are put on display at a symposium at a base in Kisarazu, Japan, in June 2022.
Preparations for Osaka Expo well underway amid lack of excitement
The Grand Ring, a symbol of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka
Ishiba shelves proposal for liaison offices with North Korea amid rising tensions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks on Saturday in Tokyo at a rally that was held by a group of families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago to demand the immediate return of all abductees.
'Kohaku' still matters for J-pop bragging rights
Emerging Gen Z J-pop group ME:I will perform on this year's "Kohaku Uta Gassen," national broadcaster NHK’s New Year's Eve spectacle.
How Japan can exit the fossil fuel subsidies it can’t seem to quit
A man walks past a gasoline station in Tokyo on Thursday.
An iconic 32-foot doughnut might give Randy’s an edge in Japan
Randy's Donuts in Inglewood, California. Replicas of the giant doughnut sculpture will be installed, where possible, at shops in Japan.
Tokyo’s newest three-star chef wants ‘harmony across every detail’
British-born Daniel Calvert earned his third Michelin star last month — a stunning achievement considering his restaurant, Sezanne, has only been open for just over three years.
133-year-old Kyushu railway station remains to be partially preserved
The remains of the original Moji Station in Kitakyushu
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.

Podcast

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By Greg Dvorak

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