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Kayoi Komachi/Komachi Visited
workshop showing

a staged reading of an opera based on the noh play
Kayoi Komachi (Komachi and the Hundred Nights)

composed by:
Farshid Samandari

featuring:
Heather Pawsey (soprano) & Yamai Tsunao (noh shite)

Saturday, January 23, 2016 - 2pm

Vancouver Opera O'Brian Centre
Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall
1945 MacLean Drive, Vancouver

Space is limited. Doors open at 1:30.

TomoeArts is creating a new chamber opera combining elements of noh with western classical music.

Ono no Komachi was a lady of the court in 9th century Japan and one of the nation's greatest poets. She was also very beautiful and had many suitors, one of whom was Fukakusa no Shôshô. Legend tells us that Komachi told Fukakusa if he courted her for 100 nights, she would consent to be with him. He slept near her carriage for 99 nights, and on the hundredth, he died. The noh play Kayoi Komachi tells their story as Fukakusa haunts her even in death.

TomoeArts is currently in the creation process of this new chamber opera based on this part of the Komachi legend, and will be having an in studio showing after a week of workshop with japanese and western artists working together and learning from each other. The libretto is created from the noh texts Kayoi Komachi and Sotoba Komachi (translated by David Crandall) and Komachi's own waka poetry (translated by Sonja Arntzen), music is composed by Farshid Samandari, music direction by Eric Wilson and stage direction by Colleen Lanki.

Featuring Komparu School noh actor Yamai Tsunao as Fukakusa no Shōshō and renowned soprano Heather Pawsey as Ono no Komachi. WITH: Melanie Adams, Joseph Bulman, Alan MacDonald, and noh actors Muraoka Kiyomi and Kashiwazaki Mayuko.

Images of the January 2016 workshop here: Kayoi Komachi Workshop photo album