Madama Butterfly Royal Opera House, London, ★★★★ Nobody could accuse Covent Garden of backwardness in virtue-signalling. They recently announced plans for trigger-warnings when murder, rape, a...Read More
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Lewes In his pre-show sales pitch the French-Canadian director-choreographer Renaud Doucet has announced, with a foot-stamping petulance one more usuall...Read More
The three-string shamisen lute is a brashly assertive instrument, but Japanese composers and performers are now exploring its hitherto unsuspected sonic potential. Honjoh Hidejiro, the leader in this ...Read More
Fujikura Portrait, Wigmore Hall, 17.2.18 A protégé of Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin, the Japanese-born composer Dai Fujikura has long been a favourite with British avant-garde musicians, thanks ...Read More
Drum children There’s a felicitous double meaning in Kodo, the name of the celebrated Japanese drumming ensemble. Its written characters mean ‘drum child’, but an infinitesimally different...Read More
Japan’s Westernisation is only skin-deep. For musical proof of this, consider the eagerness with which the Japanese periodically forsake their hi-tech existence, and immerse themselves in their anci...Read More