Opera Theater Konnyakuza
History and aim
The Opera Theater Konnyakuza was founded in Tokyo in 1971, with an aim of creating and promoting new operas sung in Japanese by former members of student club called Konnyaku Exercise Club in Tokyo Arts University. Konnyaku Exercise Club was active from 1965 until 1977, led by the late Professor Mutsuko Miyagawa in physical education at the university, who later became an emeritus professor there. The club aimed at providing future opera singers with good physical exercise and basic acting skills often wanting in the trade in Japan but necessary nonetheless. These members founded The Opera Theater Konnyakuza as a professional opera company with a repertoire of operas in Japanese language, constantly on tours. Since opera was first introduced to Japan，Japanese opera training has concentrated on bringing up opera singers on a par with professional singers in Europe in their skills testable on European stages. As a result, the skills needed to sing in Japanese has long been neglected and the Japanese audience has been forced to listen to performances in original languages. Even when a performance is in Japanese, the singers usually fail to deliver the songs clearly to them due to the lack of such training. Under such circumstances, Konnyakuza has been striving from its foundation to develop operas which are easy to listen to. In other words, we have been aiming at acquiring a method of singing which clearly tells the story to the audience. The success of such endeavor has been recognized in various fields. Konnyakuza has been presenting innovative ideas in the direction with physical expression based on the training of "Konnyaku Exercise" in order to establish the honour of opera singers, who are known to be bad actors in Japan. We have created and have done many performances of our productions not using a large-scale style of grand opera, but using only a piano or small-scale ensemble and a small number of singers. Currently, Konnyakuza carries on approximately 300 performances a year with Hikaru Hayashi as the artistic director, Kyoko Hagi as the music director and 34 singers.
Main Repertoire
- Composed by Hikaru Hayashi
- Opera Gauche the Cellist (based on the novel by Kenji Miyazawa)
- Opera Dvenadtsat' mesyatsev (based on the novel by Samuil Marshak)
- Opera Metamorphosis (based on the novel by Franz Kafka)
- Opera I am a cat (based on the novel by Soseki Natsume)
- Opera Three sisters (based on the novel by Anton P.Chekhov)
- Opera Inu no adauchi (based on the novel by Hisashi Inoue)
- Opera Last adventure of Don Quixote
(based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra) - Opera Romeo and Juliet(based on the novel by William Shakespeare)
- Composed by Kyoko Hagi
- Opera General Son-Ba-yu and the Three Physicians
- (based on the novel by Kenji Miyazawa)
- Opera Konjiki-yasha (based on the novel by Koyo Ozaki)
- Opera Gulliver (based on the novel by Jonathan Swift)
- Opera Tsuki no tami (based on the text by Tadashi Kato)
- Opera Nigorie (based on the novel by Ichiyo Higuchi)
- Opera Magaimon(based on the text by Wi shing Chong)
- Opera Kosyoku ichidai-otoko (based on the novel by Saikaku Ihara)
- Composed by Hikaru Hayashi and Kyoko Hagi
- Opera Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare)
- Opera Time for Hamlet
(adapted from the original by William Shakespeare)
- W. A. Mozart
- Opera The Marriage of Figaro
- Opera The Magic Flute
*All these in our repertoire are directed by Tadashi Kato, Kiyokazu Yamamoto, Akiko Ito, Wi Shing Chong, Hisao Takase.
Organization
- Artistic Director
- Hikaru Hayashi (Composer)
- Music Director
- Kyoko Hagi (Composer)
- Performers (Singers)
- Setsuo Kawanabe, Satoshi Oishi, Hiromi Umemura, Sachio Kaneko, Tomoe Aihara, Kimiko Ishikawa, Mayumi Okahara, Yukari Kubota, Misako Aoki, Takao Imura, Toshizumi Sakai, Toshiyuki Sato, Naoto Tomiyama, Harue Hanashima, Uruo Takano, Tomo Ishikubo, Hisashi Sato, Hiroka Suzuki, Rie Toyoshima, Hitomi Hikosaka, Nobuko Yamamoto, Satomi Tanaka, Kazuko Uragami, Mari Ota, Hanae Kageura, Daisuke Shimada,Rei Takakura, Masataka Nakajima, Reiko Nishida, Chihiro Hagi, Hikaru Miyase,Yuichiro Kitano, Eiji Sawai.
- Administrators
- Shinichiro Kanemaki, Azumi Tadachi, Maki Yumoto, Sayoko Ohara, Atsuko Miyashita, Nanako Tanoue and Mugi Doi.
Awards
- 1976
- Vienna World Opera Award (the present Giraud Opera Prize),
the special prize awarded for the creativity in the general activities
- 1989
- Giraud Opera Prize, the special prize awarded for Twelfth Night
- The Arts Festival Prize for Music, awarded for Gauche the Cellist
by the Agency for Cultural Affairs - Ongaku-no-tomo-sha Award for the creativity in the general activities
- 1992
- Kids & Arts In Kobe Ensemble Award, for Gauche the Cellist
- 1997
- Yasue Yamamoto Memorial Foundation Prize,
awarded for the work of Music Theatre in Japanese - The Mitsubishi Trust Music Award, for The Metamorphosis
- 2000
- Tokyo Selection of Excellent Arts for Young People,
Tokyo Board of Education Award
Japan Arts Association Award
Arts for Citizen of Tokyo Award awarded for Teto the Robot
- 2002
- Iihatobu Award, for all operas based on the novel
by Kenji Miyazawa by the Kenji Miyazawa Learned Society