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- Time & Date
- 15:00, Saturday, 6. 12. 2008
- Venue
- Hamarikyu Asahi Hall, Tokyo
- Soloists
- Makiko Yamashita (MS: Tamerlano)
- Hirohisa Tsuji (T: Bajazet)
- Naomi Satake (S: Asteria)
- Mutsumi Hatano (MS: Andronico)
- Yuko Seto (MS: Irene)
- Masato Makino (B: Leone)
- Orchestra
- CANNONS CONCERT CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
- Cembalo & Conductor
- Takashi Watanabe
- Greetings from the Chairman
- Welcome and thank you very much for all coming to the 6th Handel Festival Japan (HFJ) performance today. HFJ has commenced its activities back in 2003 aiming for the year 2009, which will be the 250th anniversary of Handel's passing and today we have an opportunity to have our 6th performance. Despite various difficulties, we are here today – that is, this could not have been achieved without your warm support and strong cooperation to date and in this regard, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to you.
- The theme of the 6th HFJ has been set up as "Handel in Haymarket". Handel's theatre activities in London can be roughly divided into two sections. The first half is for Italian opera activities in the King's Theatre, Haymarket and the second half is for oratorio activities in the Theatre Royal, Coventgarden. With the theme of "Handel in Hay Market", we will focus on Handel's most glamorous era of opera activities, especially in 1720s and we would like to extend you a lecture presentation and an opera performance TAMERLANO.
- Handel composed his first opera in Hamburg during his youth. Since then, he had determined to devote his life to operas, which enable him to express flesh and blood human dramas with love, hate, trust and betrayal crossing each other rather dramatically. Later in life, he became obliged to give up on operas and focused on oratorios instead, however, there is no doubt that Handel committed to flesh and blood human dramas consistently. I believe that this showed Handel's deep love for the existence of human beings themselves.
- The main performance, TAMERLANO has been known as the masterpiece for its intensive drama and dramatic music amongst approximately 40 operas Handel composed. It would be my pleasure if you could enjoy thoroughly, depth, affluence and intensity of Handel's music, which is sympathetic to the people who were forced conflict due to the outrageous desires by tyrants.
- Last but not least, our special thanks go to "The Asahi Shimbun Foundation for the Arts", "The Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Foundation for the Arts", "THE NOMURA CULTURAL FOUNDATION", "The Asahi Shimbun", "Akira Kubota Harpsichord Workshop", "Ikegami Lutheran Church", "HFJ Support Club:HANDELIAN", "GEORG-FRIEDRICH-HÄNDEL-GESELLSCHAFT, Internationale Vereinigung, e.V." , "STIFTUNG HÄNDEL-HAUS HALLE AN DER SAALE" and "The American Handel Society" for their remarkable support and cooperation.
- Toshiki Misawa
- Chairman
- Committee of Handel Festival Japan
- (Translated by Naoko Oshima)