Kazuko Hara

Kazuko Hara (原 嘉壽子, Hara Kazuko, born 10 February 1935) is a prolific Japanese opera composer.

Life and career

She studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music under Tomojiro Ikenouchi, graduating in 1957. She subsequently went to France where she studied with Henri Dutilleux and Alexander Tcherepnin. After that she then returned to Japan to teach at the Osaka University of Music.

Between 1978 and 1999 she wrote 18 operas, many of them performed in Tokyo by the Nihon Opera Kyokai or the Nikikai Opera. One work was performed in Italy. In general she has preferred Japanese subjects, however her second opera was about Sherlock Holmes and she composed an opera on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment for a large-scale production at the New National Theatre, Tokyo in 1999.

Operas

Operas by Kazuko Hara include:

• The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes (Confession) after Conan Doyle (1981)
• Iwai Uta ga Nagareru Yoruni (1984)
• Shita wo Kamikitta Onna (1986)
• Sute Hime (1989)
• Yosakoi Bushi (1990)
• Petro Kibe (1991)
• Tsumi to batsu (Crime and Punishment) after Dostoevsky (1999)

Other works

• Sonatine for piano (1957)
• Preludio, aria e toccata for guitar (1970)

Recordings

• Yosakoi Bushi has been recorded and published on laserdisc.

Sources

• Holledge, Simon. "Hara Kazuko: Crime and Punishment, 19th June 1999", Opera Japonica
• Kanazawa, Masakata (2001). "Hara, Kazuko". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)‎
• Biographical note for Daniel Quinn recital, accessed 20 January 2010