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Encounter with the Orchestra
I had my first meeting with the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra when
it was still called the Nagoya City Orchestra. I conducted a concerto with a wellknown pianist, Mr. Shura Cherkassky. Several years later, I received andaccepted an invitation to conduct its regular concert. The program was
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and Richard Strauss’ Le Bourgeois
Gentilhomme. We had rigorous rehearsals together. On the day of the concert,
Mr. Nonoyama, the Secretary General, asked me to accept the post of its resident
conductor. I was shocked because it was such short notice. I told him that I
needed some time to process, and I began thinking of a variety of things about
the offer.
The reason why I accepted the position was that, of course, I was a native
to Nagoya. I had an earnest desire to make the city’s music culture more active.
I also liked the small size of the orchestra and the fact that it often had opera andballet concerts. I like French compositions, especially compositions written fora small unit orchestra by Ibert, Milhaud and Poulenc, and I have often selected
and played them. Truly, conducting a big unit orchestra is a real pleasure as aconductor, but compositions for a chamber orchestra are written neatly, and I lovethe fact that each voice part can be heard separately.
I decided to accept the offer in order to plan various interesting projects.
At first, in 1998, I was given the title as guest resident conductor. Then mycareer as its regular resident conductor began in the following year, 1999. Fromthat year, the orchestra, which had been mainly performing German compositions
such as Beethoven and Brahms, also began performing compositions new to theorchestra. It must have been a season of refreshment, but also a very hardseason for the members of the orchestra, because they had to handle so many
new things. Favorably, the ages of the members were young and they were
eager to grow. When they worked on a new composition, they never left
untouched what they did not understand or what was done poorly as an ensemble.
They kept working on the section during their rehearsal breaks, or sought me tosolve the problem together. I had never seen such a willing and positiveorchestra. The Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra would spend three days
rehearsing rigorously a composition that other orchestras would complete in one
1Chapter 1
The Central Aichi Symphony Orchestraday. They did not mind it, as long as the concert was done well. Together withthis Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra, I grew to be a patient conductor.
The orchestra held its regular concerts five times. I chose all the
programs for each concert. As a brand new challenge, I included many Frenchmusic pieces in a concert program. It was actually a risky adventure. Some ofthese compositions included solo passages that members would play. It was
not easy for the members to play solo parts. The soloists would stand out andfeel great pressure. But, at the same time, it offered a moment of being proudof themselves, if it was done well. So I took the risk. And the members
responded by rehearsing rigorously.

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Nothing But New
For the first regular concert with the orchestra, I chose Ma mère l'Oye,
the orchestral suite by Ravel, a French composer, Piano Concerto by anotherFrench, Poulenc, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. Ravel’s composition was
performed with a small orchestral unit. Perhaps the critics did not expect theorchestra to perform successfully with such a program, but we performed thesecompositions with better feeling than we had expected. It was very French.
The sounds of French music are subtle and difficult, but unlike ones who had
already been thickened and solidified by certain types of color, the members of
the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra were flexible enough to make their sounds
French. I asked Mr. Koji Oikawa to be the pianist for the Poulenc’s piano
concerto. When Mr. Oikawa and I performed together previously, he told methat he liked this piano concerto but he had never performed it before. I reallywanted him to be a part of this performance. Passages for the orchestra were
extremely difficult, so we spent considerable time practicing until we expressed
the depths of this composition well.
Mozart’s symphony was a perfect fit for the Central Aichi SymphonyOrchestra. I intended to play several compositions of Mozart during my tenure
position, and the 40th symphony was perfect for sharpening the orchestra’s
ensemble. The tickets for the concert were sold out. It was a good start.
Everyone must have been interested in what sounds the Central Aichi SymphonyOrchestra would be evolving into. Even today, the orchestra still creates brightand colorful sounds.
On that year, I appeared on the NHK television show, Yōkoso Senpai,
and another concert was to be televised on another NHK television program. In
this concert, Mr. Nobuya Sugawa, a saxophonist, performed a concerto with us.
I also played the piano on La Création du Monde composed by Milhaud.
I wanted only to do new pieces with the orchestra. I also had to. In
opera, for example, playing an opera in a normal way was not intriguing. I
thought about performing on a Noh stage. I explored various possibilities. In
between concerts and rehearsals in Nagoya, I would walk around and search forideas. One day, I visited the Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya and talked with the office1Chapter 1
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staff to see if we could hold an unusual event together. The Central Aichi
Symphony Orchestra had a positive attitude about accepting ideas that werenovel. It allowed these unique ideas to be considered as long as it would please
the audience.
Finally, various adventures and experiments with the orchestra began.

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Yōkoso Senpai
It was confirmed that I would be appearing in the NHK television program,
Extracurricular Activity: Yōkoso Senpai (Welcome, Alumni). In the month of July
1999, when I officially became the resident conductor of the Central Aichi
Symphony Orchestra, I visited Taisei Elementary School where I had attended asa child, located in Nagoya, my hometown. This television program is interesting.
In the program, people who are active in various professional fields visit schools
they had attended and are assigned to teach the school children. I was
assigned to teach a music class at the elementary school for two days. I wanted
to show the children what kinds of things I do and how I enjoy music as aconductor.
Before going to the school, I had requested the photos of all the students
I would be teaching so that I could remember each by name. I knew it would be
convenient to know their names when I met them, and would be useful forcommunication. As a matter of fact, the students were surprised when I called
them by name on the day we met each other for the first time.
On the first day, I spoke to the children about how to conduct and how tocommunicate what I want to express to other people. They were sixth graders,
but they quickly understood the basics of conducting that I usually have to teachin my university course. Perhaps that was because they were interested. They
had their own ideas and asked me questions immediately when they did notunderstand. Our class was very lively.
On the second day, the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra visited theschool and we had the students actually conduct with the orchestra. Thisorchestra performs many concerts for elementary and junior high schools formusic education. It regularly gives lessons and teaches music that children canunderstand. The members are also cooperative. During the time of planning,
we picked up a well-known tune, Do-Re-Mi, and we decided to divide the children
into three groups, and have each group play the tune with a different way of
expression. One group, “Do-Re-Mi of Four Seasons,” would make music witheach of the four seasons throughout the year. Another group, “Do-Re-Mi ofAnimals,” would include the sounds of various animals in the music. The other1

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group, “Do-Re-Mi of Railway,” would express the scenes of travelling by train likeleaving from a station, going through a tunnel, and passing through a bridge.
My role was to receive requests from these children, think about whatkinds of sounds they wanted (sounds of animals, or whatever would represent a
season like fireworks) and write down the music scores for the orchestra. We
rehearsed together with the orchestra and tried making various sounds withmusical instruments. For example, we compared the sounds between an oboe
and a triangle to express the sound of a cricket chirping. Indeed, so manydifferent kinds of sounds came out of the orchestra. The members of theorchestra had an unusual experience.
They must have enjoyed playing
sounds, rather than music notes written on scores.
At the end, we had a concert in the school gym. The children tookcharge of conducing the orchestra throughout the concert. They conducted wellto the rhythm of the music. It was also a moment for the adults to revisit theirchildlike innocence and simplicity.

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Performing Opera Don Giovanni in a form of Noh & Kyōgeneyes.

Out of nowhere, a white Noh mask shining cold appeared in front of my
I was conducting the opera Don Giovanni by Mozart in May, 1995. It

appeared as a flash, right at the moment when I finished conducting the intensemusic for the scene when the statue of the Knight Commander arrived in thepalace for revenge and was about to sing. Instantly I had the idea to produce
Don Giovanni in the form of Noh&Kyōgen. My thoughts continued. How about
performing the opera at a Noh stage instead of a stage theater? The Noh stage
by itself would function as a remarkable set. Then, we would not need large
stage settings.
Don Giovanni is an opera based on a legend from the 15th century Europe,
Don Juan. Back then, Japan was in the Muromachi Era when Noh wasdeveloped as an art form by Kan’ami and Zeami. What would it be like if thestory of Don Giovanni was re-told as a Japanese story? Suppose we made thisman, who had numerous infidelities with women and ended up being carried
down to the hell by demons, as an extremely licentious Japanese samurai.
Then what would be the figure of the statue of the Knight Commander who would
be at the scene when he comes to revenge? My friends, with whom I talked
about the production idea, were intrigued. So, Don Giovanni in a form of
Noh&Kyōgen began to occupy my head. I visited the office of the National Noh
Theater in Sendagaya, Tokyo, to see if it was possible to perform an opera at thetheater. Their response was, “No(h).” The theater could be only used for Nohor Kyōgen performances. A certain number of seats would have to be provided
for a performance and, tickets for those seats would have to be sold to make aprofit.
Unfortunately, most of the Noh theaters had a very small number ofseats. So I spent the next five years waiting for the right chance to come.
During those years, a magnificent Noh theater was built in Nagoya. The theater
held 630 seats and could be used for an opera as well. After the theater was
built, I became the resident conductor of the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra,a professional orchestra active in the city. The wind began turning to Nagoya.
Finally in 2000, Don Giovanni, directed in a Noh&Kyōgen form was going
to be performed. I consulted Mr. Sennojō Shigeyama, a Kyōgen actor, about
directing the performance. I had previously worked with Mr. Shigeyama when1

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we performed Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale dramatized as Kyōgen.
pleasantly accepted his role to direct Don Giovanni.

He

When it came to this production, I encountered several immediateproblems. The lyrics of the opera were the first problem. Originally the lyrics
were written in Italian, and I thought first that it would be more suitable to translatethem into Japanese for an opera that would be directed in a Japanese form. Butthat might cause a gap between the movements and the words of the opera
singers who act, especially when the singers are acting with slow movements.
After thinking through various considerations, I concluded that it would be better
to honor Mozart’s music as is. So I decided to perform it with the original Italian
language.

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Conductor Wearing Kimono with Tasuki
The next issue to deal with was where to place the orchestra in the theater.
There is no orchestra pit in a Noh theater, so we had to create a space for asmaller orchestra in the area between the stage and the seats, called shirasu. I
would be sitting on the front seat and facing the stage to conduct the orchestra,but the pillars supporting the roof blocked my view of some of the orchestra
members. I wouldn’t be able to see or communicate with them during theperformance. In order to avoid such a situation, we set up a television monitor
so that the musicians sitting behind the pillars could watch the conductor from themonitor.
Another problem was whether or not to use a mandolin instrument during
the performance. I had thought about using a biwa lute for a mandolin to matchthe historical context, but had had a huge misunderstanding. There is a scene
where Don Giovanni serenades a woman at a window with his mandolin frombelow. I had assumed that, since the biwa was the same stringed instrument as
the mandolin, it would be easy to play the melody that was written for the
mandolin. I was told that it was not, and was actually impossible to play a brightmajor scale with the biwa. So, we decided to play the instrument solo after all.
Having dealt with various issues and problems, we managed to performthe opera in June, 2000. All the seats during the four show days were sold out.
So we put the extra seats on sale and they were also sold out. The production
was a GREAT success. When you gazed at the Japanese actors wearing
kimonos and acting on the Noh stage…they looked amazing! They werebeautiful. The Japanese could imitate Westerner’s behaviors and act as such,even though, after all, those behaviors are products from foreign nations. On
the Noh stage we created as many expressions as possible with one plain screen
and one stage prop, a fan.
Mr. Shigeyama, who directed the opera, said, “The less concrete settings
a drama has, the more imagination it gives to the viewers, which creates a great
performance.” I did not see any mismatch between the music of Mozart and theform of Noh&Kyōgen, and the performance was absolutely wonderful. It wasinteresting to see how a minuet in the opera would be expressed through the1Chapter 1
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traditional Japanese dance with a fan. A minuet is a dance in three-fourths time,
while most of the traditional Japanese dances are in two-fourths or four-fourths
time. He settled the issue in a simple and clear way: there would be no problem
after the three-fourths minuet was repeated four times. He was exactly right, forthe conflict disappeared when we grasped it in a larger phrase. And it gave mea real surprise to see the minuet danced with a fan.
At the climax of the drama, the ghost of the Knight Commander appeared
and walked slowly through the hashi gakari, a raised platform, to the main stage
with his white hair streaming. That was a spectacle with tremendous power.
There was no great distance between the main stage and the seats at the Nohtheatre. So, the expressions of the singers were distinctly visible to thespectators, and the singers were able to make their voices resound without
forcing it. The project that I had dreamed about for five years finally came true,and it was worth the wait.
In this performance, all the singers performed while wearing kimono
dresses. Mr. Shigeyama suggested that I should also wear a kimono as the
conductor. I had played the piano before in a kimono, but not as a conductor.
He also gave me the advice to tuck up the kimono sleeves with a tasuki cord. I
started practicing this tasuki-gake every night in a hotel, using a yukata cord. On
the first day of the performance, after greeting the audience with my kimono andhakama, I sat down and began tasuki-gake, which was the most nervous momentthat I had during the entire performance. But when I heard the audience
responding with applause, I was ready. I swung the baton down and began
conducting.

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Masque－Manipulated by the Mask
Then, the devil whispered to me, “The future will be yours, once you wear
the mask, called Desire…” This was the catchword for a concert performed at
the Nagoya Artpia Hall on October 2002. I produced this concert with theCentral Aichi Symphony Orchestra, collaborating orchestral and ballet
performances. However, the main focus was not a ballet performance on thestage. The orchestral concert was the main event. So, the orchestra still
performed on the stage, rather than in the concert pit below the stage, and theballet performance was also added on the orchestral concert. Stravinsky’s The
Soldier’s Tale, and Pulcinella were chosen as the music program for the concert.
I picked these two works because both compositions were difficult for themusicians to perform, and also because it was hard to imagine the scenes ofeach story with music alone.
Pulcinella is a masked character, appearing in the Italian comedy of
improvisation style. He is also a handsome man. From this mask, I had anidea of using another mask from The Soldier’s Tale. The devil appears in thestory of The Soldier’s Tale, and the conversation between the devil and the soldier
is interesting. And at the end of the story the devil wins. I gave it a try, writinga script to replace the soldier with a violinist. The original story begins when thesoldier exchanges his favorite violin with the devil’s book that contains future
events. I replaced it with the violinist’s desire. Having gained the violin spelledby the devil, the violinist gains honor, wealth and everything he desired. One
day in a town, he hears news that the king’s daughter is sick. He visits the
Palace and heals her sickness by playing the violin. Then he decides to live a
happy life with the princess, which plays into the devil’s hands.
Here, in Masque, the mask becomes story line: by wearing the mask, theviolinist can gain whatever he desires. Because all things are “the tricks of themask,” it appears from the very start of the performance. More correctly,
Masque has been illuminated on the stage before the concert starts. And themask that has tricked the violinist in The Soldier’s Tale is then passed to thehands of Pulcinella, who appears in the next play. Having the mask on his face,
he can act as a handsome man.

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The purpose for this production was to integrate drama, ballet and musicon the stage. I wanted to make sure that these three elements were weighted
equally. When I produce something, I always think of the finished form of theconcert first. In other words, I imagine the completed performance on the stage
before anything else. Then, I carefully examine whether the characters andhighlights in the play would appeal to the audience’s interests.
And then, most important of all, I believe the concert flier has to catch theeyes of the people. I am very picky about fliers for a concert. Many times I
have been involved in producing a concert. So I also take a part in the teamdesigning flyers for the concert. This is because the flyer is the first message tothe public from its producer.
For this concert, I chose the colors in the flyer out of my image of thecontext of the concert. The devil is involved in the story of Masque. Twoshapes which oppose one another make us imagine a mask. The backgroundcolor is black, while blue and red not only represent a contrast, but also express
love between a man and a woman embracing. I asked the designer to design aflyer based on such content. I also asked the designer to try various shapes ofthe eyes in blue and red patterns and find the sharpest one. A quite noticeable
flyer came out as a result, and I was very satisfied with its design. But afterwards,
I received feedback that I had not expected, “I thought the flyer was for a ballet
concert or some kind of performing arts. I did not think it was an orchestral
concert and so I did not pay any attention to it.”
It was my mistake that I had put too much emphasis on color and design,and not on the program of the concert which was the most important message.
In addition, the concert hall we used had usually been used for ballet andperforming arts events. Obviously the flyer that we made did not function as itshould have, and this was a good lesson for us in making later flyers.
Nevertheless, we had success in the concert. Having not been able towrite the script for The Solder’s Tale early for the performers created a greatinconvenience for them. I am thankful for Ms. Reiko Matsuoka who kindly
accepted her role to choreograph the compositions for the ballet, and the Reiko
Matsuoka Ballet which performed on the stage prettily. They performed
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Stravinsky’s complicated rhythm and beat smoothly. Mr. Masahiro Hibino, who
accepted the role as the narrator in The Soldier’s Tale, acted as if he were one of
the characters in the story as he narrated. The concert began with Mr. Hibino’s
one word, “Mask!” Both the audience and I must have had the sense of being
drawn into the mask’s trick. I was completely charmed by his voice.
The theme of The Soldier’s Tale is, “You already have all happiness when
you have one.

Don’t seek two at a time.” The soldier in the story tried to gainas much happiness as he could, lost a bet with the devil, and ended up losing
everything. This can be a common tale in our own lives.
A friend of mine and I talked about this once. As a conductor, I receive
lots of applause from many people when I am on the stage. In other words, I
have already received lots of happiness on stage. Perhaps I should not pursue
another happiness in my daily life off the stage. I should receive my happinessonly on the stage as a conductor. That is because we have all the happiness
when we have one, and the stage and conducting is my one.

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Another Romance of Carmen
In 2004 the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra held a concert in Tokyo.
It would be participating in a music festival with orchestras from regional cities.
The organizers of the festival requested each orchestra to demonstrate locality inthe program. Mr. Nonoyama, the Secretary General of the orchestra, and I
discussed what would represent the local color of Nagoya. Nagoya is wellknown as the City of Arts, and the practice of traditional Japanese arts such as
shamisen, koto and buyō are very popular. So we thought that we should plana project that would integrate western music and traditional Japanese arts, suchas the concerts and operas that I had produced, including Don Giovanni at the
Noh theatre. Then, bunraku, a traditional Japanese puppet theatre, occurred to
my mind. Speaking of bunraku, Monzaemon Chikamatsu was the greatest jōruri
writer and his sewamono plays, based on conflicted love romance, are very
amusing. Immediately this brought Carmen, an opera, to my mind. Though
the last confrontation between José and Carmen, which is the climax scene ofthe opera, would not lead to a double suicide which usually happens at the endof a sewamono story, the situation between José and Carmen seemed to sharesomething in common with the jōruri world.
Right away I looked into the history of bunraku as well as Bizet’s opera,
Carmen. The story of the opera is set in a town, called Sevilla, in Spain aroundthe year of 1800. Coincidently, the jōruri stories were popular in our nation in
the Edo era. This discovery led me to envision the program. The singers
would imitate the movements of puppets. In order to make them like puppets,
we would place behind each singer kuroko, a stagehand wearing in all black, andthe kuroko would move with the singer as if he were moving his puppet by strings.
Sticking to the fact that this would be a concert, the orchestra would be performingon the stage. Another stage for the singers acting as puppets would be set upon the back of the stage. A jōruri narrative singer as well as a shamisen player
would be added to the orchestra. The opera Carman is opéra comique whichcontains spoken lines between songs, and Guiraud, a friend of Bizet, composed
the music in a way that the singers could perform as recitative. I had the ideathat the singers would sing these lines with the gidayū music. Fortunately, Ms.
Akiko Ota, a graduate of the Tokyo University of the Arts, majoring at musicology,
was a shamisen player. She agreed to attempt to create the jōruri and shamisen
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part for the section. In addition, Ms. Sonomi Gojō from the Gojō school of Nihonbuyō gladly accepted the role to choreograph the program. There were so many
unpredictable things in this project, but we believed we were creating a new wayof appreciating operas. It would have been ideal if we could have performed theentire story of the opera, but unfortunately we had to cut out many parts of thestory, because it would be performed at a concert hall, instead of an opera theater.
When it came to the flyer, I gave its designer various requests. We had
made a mistake in the past (See the section of Masque) that because we had
included so many elements in the flyer, the people did not see it as a concert but
as a performance. Learning from the experience, I emphasized that it was about
Carmen. I combined the colors of Spain’s national flag (bright red and yellow)
and a bunraku puppet. It was hard to find a puppet with a fine expression. We
finally found the perfect one in the city of Chiryū in Aichi. After having photos of
the puppet taken from various angles, we selected the best one. The image
went far ahead of the project itself, but I was able to anticipate the outcome inadvance. It was decided that the concert would be held November 20th in 2003
in Nagoya, and then in February of the following year at the Sumida Triphony Hallin Sumida, Tokyo. I was excited to see how the singers would imitate thepuppets’ movements.

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Singers’ Great Efforts in the Kimono
We began practicing for Another Romance of Carmen. The singers had
already performed Carmen as an opera many times, so it did not take long forthem to practice the music. Their movement during the performance, however,
was rather an issue. Ms. Sonomi Gojō, the choreographer, checked their
movements quite thoroughly and often sternly, and gave them specific advice.
Ms. Sonomi Gojō was active in the field of Nihon buyō. But she told methat she had never seen an actual performance of the opera Carmen. Based on
the brief summary of each scene and the explanation given from the singers
about how they had performed the scene in the opera, she created its dance part.
She completed her choreography with each movement superb in elegance,
tastefulness and sharpness. The singers also received suitable advice on how
they could move in order to be seen as puppets. The people who acted as
kuroko assisted the singers as they walked onto the stage in kimono.
Sometimes the kuroko even carried the singers as if they were carrying puppets.
The singers wore casual clothes during their lessons, but when they
started rehearsing in the kimono, the heaviness unexpectedly weighed on them.
The costume and wig of Carmen were especially heavy. In addition, in thesecond Act in Another Romance of Carmen, we had a highlight scene in which
Carmen’s white dress would be quickly changed for another in red. Because
there was no break time between the first and the second Acts, Ms. Megumi Kōno
who acted Carmen had to wear two dresses from the beginning. Ms. Kōno wasconcerned about the tempos of the music, because she easily ran out of breathwith her costume on, and had a hard time singing in fast tempos. It seemed thatthe place where she tightened the kimono with obi girdle delicately affected
breathing when singing.

This had not been a problem in western clothes.

In the opera sections, the singers sang without dancing, but in the
narrative sections many movements were added with gidayū (narrative andshamisen). Tsuruzawa Sansuzu (Ms. Akiko Ota) had studied western music so
I asked her to elaborate each transitional section between the gidayū part andthe orchestral part. Without her, this project would not have been so polished.
She created complete jōruri parts in the context of Carmen. The singers would
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follow the jōruri and move as puppets, which must have been laborious for her.
I also made various requests during rehearsals, such as the tones and speeds ofthe gidayū narrative songs. We were soon looking forward to rehearsing withthe orchestra.
A day before the performance, all the members came together for the firsttime. With curious looks, the orchestra, the singers and the gidayū stared at one
another in the concert hall. This was a rare experience for the orchestral
members. Another stage had been made behind them and a kabuki curtain was
hanging over the stage. The singers, whose faces were painted white like
puppets, were doing warm-up singing in their kimonos. The gidayū and thepeople who were kuroko had never seen an actual orchestra before, and were
impressed, saying that this was such an amazing experience.
The performance began with the hitting of the hyōshigi instrument, which
had been my idea, and was followed by a short performance of the shamisen,
and then the Prelude of the opera Carmen by the orchestra. Immediately after
the prelude the shamisen and the gidayū came in and finally the singers appearedon the stage. I still remember the sensation I felt when we rehearsed together
for the first time. Each presentation was made from the completely different art
forms, but they had absolutely no sense of wrongness. I felt it strange that wewere able to enter the world of orchestral music and then the gidayū so smoothly.
The singers sang with the original lyrics in French. We had been
concerned about the lack of Japanese subtitles, but later found out that theoccasional narrative singings of the gidayū were helpful for following the story,
and that the movements of the singers were very Japanese, which allowed theaudience to understand the content of the story with ease.
We enjoyed a successful performance. We received countless praises.
Yet we had a critical comment that the singers did not look like puppets. I want
to respond that those who want to see puppets can go to a bunraku theatre. It
was an amusing part of the performance that the men and women, especially theopera singers, imitated the puppet movements. We received another criticalcomment that the music of the performance did not go beyond the Bizet’s music.
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produce an entertainment by integrating the music of Bizet and traditional
Japanese culture, while fully maintaining honor to Bizet’s music. I want toemphasize that the concert was an orchestral performance of music at a concert
hall. The following concert in Tokyo (at the Sumida Tryphony Hall) in February
2004, brought us another success. The audience was quite responsive to our
performance.
I thank Ms. Megumi Kōno (Carmen), Mr. Toyohisa Kanda (José), Ms.
Kyoko Ikeda (Micaëla), Mr. Toshiya Inagaki (Escamillo) and others, because they
delightfully worked with this brutal project. I thank Ms. Sonomi Gojō for having
choreographed the music, and Ms. Tsuruzawa Sansuzu, the shamisen player, forhaving been a bridge maker between the East and the West.
rest of the staff for this project.

And I thank the

Let me share with you an interesting episode. Ms. Megumi Kōno, who
acted as Carmen in our concert, happened to be performing another Carmen ina different concert, when we were rehearsing. In one, she acted as Carmen inwestern dress while singing the lyrics in Japanese in Carmen, and then she acted
as Carmen in kimono while singing the lyrics in French in Another Romance ofCarmen. So every day she switched her roles between the two Carmen, one inJapanese language and the other in French language.
When Carmen’s white kimono was quickly changed to the red kimono in
the second act, it was done by pulling out the thread on the kimonos. This wasa difficult technique. I had been told that Ms. Kōno would not be able to pull thethread smoothly if it became wet with sweat. I was nervous during this scene
while conducting the orchestra, knowing she was supposed to change the kimono
dresses before the music ended. But I was relieved. At the moment when thewhite kimono was transformed into red, I heard applause from the audience.

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Another Success at Expo
After those concerts, the Expo 2005 was to be held in Aichi Prefecture
and the Central Aichi Symphony was going to perform Another Romance ofCarmen again at the Expo Dome during the exhibition’s Aichi Prefecture Week in
September. We were thrilled by the news but were concerned about the heat at
the dome and the possibility for typhoons. In past performances, we had beentroubled by the heat and the humidity, so we were especially worried about how
the singers in their kimono would be able to perform with no air conditioning.
Since the dome was large, the singers would have to use microphones
to be heard. Because they would be moving on the stage, we decided to install
the microphones inside the wigs of the singers. A giant screen was set up sothat the audience could see the stage performance.
It was the last month for the Expo. From early in the morning, people
waited in long lines to get in. Another Romance of Carmen was very popularand it was hard to get tickets. By the way, a chorus group always performed in
Another Romance of Carmen. We thought it would be best if the residents of
Aichi Prefecture participated in this Expo event since it was being held in Aichi.
So the women’s chorus group, Madonna Kakitsubata, which means iris inJapanese, was chosen to perform on the stage. They would sing in French.
Male singers, including the chorus group, Monsieur Kakitsubata, joined thechorus and they spent days practicing. Since French spelling was difficult for
the Japanese people, they transcribed the French lyrics into katakana charactersand practiced singing until they had completely memorized them. A lady in thechorus told me that she felt as if the French lyrics were echoing inside her head
whether she was awake or asleep. They must have had a hard time.
The opening time for the concert was 5 P.M. It was during the month of
September, and the sun was still showing above us when we began the prelude.
But, then it quickly grew dark. By the time the third act began, it was completely
dark and the orchestra was performing with the music stand lights on. I was
facing toward the stage and could not think about anything but Another Romanceof Carmen, but later heard that the view of the sunset from the stage wasgorgeous.

A chorus of chirping insects also joined the concert, competing with1

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the men and the women in the chorus. We had another success. Many friendsof mine came from Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka to see the concert. They told melater that they all had a good time.

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Female Chorus Madonna Kakitsubata
I had started something big, something produced on a megaton level. It
was the Kakitsubata, a female chorus that I founded in 2003. Today the chorus
is made up of women who love singing and is active in the prefecture of Aichi.
They practice together twice a month, singing Japanese folk songs and children’ssongs such as Momiji, Hana, and Kōjō no Tsuki that are no longer common to theyounger generations.
Kakitsubata (Iris) is the official flower for the prefecture of Aichi.

It is also

the official flower for the City of Chiryū in Aichi. Since there was already anotherfemale chorus called Kakitsubata, we added Madonna to the name. We jokedabout the name, because Madonna Kakitsubata sounds like in Japanese, “Maadonna kakitsubata? (Oh, what kind of kakitsubata is it?)” Doing just practices
would be boring, so we decided to plan a concert. By the way, when I plan any
concert or project, I always set a goal first. And after I set a concert date andplace, I begin practice. This time was not the exception, either. We started
counting backward.
There was a large concert hall with 1800 seats in the Aichi Arts Center.
On November 1st, the members of Madonna Kakitsubata would be standing on
the stage. Of course they would not only be standing, but they would also be
singing. They began practicing for the concert by reading the music score of a
new song in each rehearsal, otherwise it would have been too late. I attended
their rehearsals as often as I could. I had to, because I had initiated the plan.
We also had to choose the stage costumes. Various things began moving
forward quickly. Ms. Mitsuyo Yonehama who was in charge of its administration
kept continuously busy with the preparations for the concert.
We asked Ferice Matsueda, a leading dressmaking company based in
Nagoya for a rather unreasonable favor to design and make about fifty dresses
for the chorus members. We decided to have the company design a white dress
and a bolero with kakitsubata color (light purple). The members would lookclassy and beautiful on the stage but the dress they chose was designed for awedding dress. And considering their ages, we had to order sizes twice larger
than the normal size. It was because a wedding dress was usually designed for1

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a bride standing still and our chorus would be moving. Ms. Noriko Kakuta
designed the official logotype of the chorus, and then the chorus officially began
its activity.
I wrote the following notes in the concert flyer. Singing is refreshing. It
makes us feel refreshed even when we are dealing with something difficult.
What a fun place of fellowship it would be if women who are active in various
fields would gather and sing together. Out of such a vision, we have formed
Madonna Kakitsubata. Nowadays, children no longer sing the Japanese songs
we have sung for generations. As we sing, we desire to bring the message ofthe kindness of humanity and the heart to care for others. Watch and see how
radiant we women are on stage.

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Adventure of Madonna Kakitsubata
It has been five years since I founded the chorus. I wonder how many
concerts we have managed to perform in those years. Being the producer bymyself, I have had numerous adventures with the chorus, such as creating
various projects, performing with the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra, andparticipating in the opera performance at the Expo 2005 Aichi. In May 2005, we
tried a concert in Tokyo, singing with an orchestra on the big stage of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Theatre for publicity for the upcoming Expo 2005 Aichi. A large
audience thronged the concert hall, which surprised the ladies of the chorus.
But they were used to performing at a large concert hall in Aichi, so they were notoverwhelmed. Another legacy of fearlessness was born there.
In September of the same year, the chorus played the choir part ofAnother Romance of Carmen at the Expo Dome. The chorus members
transcribed the French lyrics into katakana characters and memorized them.
Their strength impressed me.

They have performed with professional singers

and musicians many times. They even performed ballets, though it was only
small parts.
People have said, “The bonus part of the chorus performance is always
good.” They mean that the professional musician who plays with the chorus as
the guest is always good. It takes me days and nights in planning, programingand even designing the flier. Ms. Yonehama, who is the manager of the chorus,brings my dreamy ideas into reality as much as possible. Ms. Kakuta, thedesigner, catches the impressions of the flier that I have in my mind and makes
it into print. Ms. Mari Watanabe, the pianist, accepts my impossible requests
and somehow performs with the music score that she had not gotten until the lastminute. These people helped me continue the chorus for five years. Most ofall, I have been helped by the members’ strength and extreme cheerfulness.
Although I had not done it much before, I also arranged Japanese songs
for the chorus. I arranged Zuizui Zukkorobashi, Mura Matsuri, Tanabata, andeven the famous Boléro for the chorus, which was amazing to me. Recently I
arranged some opera songs by composers like Verdi, and the chorus has been
singing the songs in Italian. So, our adventure continues.
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Raising the Music Culture
The cities of Chiryū and Kariya in Aichi are the areas where my parents
grew up and both cities have wonderful concert halls. They also promote
activities on art and music culture.
The city of Chiryū owns its city culture center, Patio Chiryu.

Mr. Seikō

Iyoda, the former director of the center, has planned many creative events.

I

have been conducting the New Year Concert in this hall every year since 2003.
A chorus group called Patio Theater Chorus, has been active in this city for quite
a long time. The chorus performs on the stage every year at the New Year
Concert. The group sings operettas in chorus, and Beethoven’s 9 th Symphony,
Mass works and so on. I used to come to this city when I was a child to visit mygrandmother. I even attended an elementary school in this city for a brief time.
So I have lots of good memories.
The city of Kariya is the city where my parents attended their schools.
Mr. Takehiro Isomura, the former director of the civic center, had a vision ofpromoting music culture for the city and has passionately planned orchestra
concerts. Every year I perform a concert with the Central Aichi SymphonyOrchestra and soloists from this city. At one time even the local junior highschool students performed with the orchestra.
Yet, the number of people who listen to classical music has not grown.
In the regional cities, how many people actually go to concert halls to listen toclassical music rather than listening to CDs? Despite such conditions, people
like Mr. Iyoda and Mr. Isomura, engage in concert projects, working hard to create
many spaces for the local artists. A concert place is a space where people
gather and talk together. As our society is becoming an internet society, I hopethat the activities at concert halls would also become active places for people toconnect with one another.

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Surrounded by Warmhearted Friends
After leading the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra for five years, mylast concert as its resident conductor was held at the Shirakawa Hall in Nagoya
in March 2004. I had met and worked with numerous soloists, singers andactors during those years. With the orchestra, I had performed many Frenchcompositions. We also performed operas such as Poulenc’s Les mamelles deTirésias and Weber’s Oberon, in which the singers and the orchestra performedon the same stage. For the program for my last concert, I selected Richard
Strauss’ tone poem, Don Juan, Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto (soloist, Ms. Yasuko
Ohtani), and Franck’s Symphony. I named the concert “Keep Pursuing Your
Ideals.”I was completing this season as the resident conductor. So I chose Le
Jardin Féerique from Ravel’s Ma Mère l'Oye as an encore. This was the very
first composition we performed when I had become the resident conductor five
years ago. I conducted the piece, while playing a celesta by myself. Up until
the concert began, I had feared that I might be moved to cry. But I did not. My
expectations for the new season proved greater.
Meeting with many
warmhearted friends helped me to look ahead and move forward. I was
overjoyed by the fact that I could start something new again.

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