| A fun
discovery was made with the unprecedented
use of Hall A. A great success! |
Seiji Ozawa's Music School
Opera Project IV
J Strauss II's Die Fledermaus (The Bat)
ROHM OPERA THEATER |
| ■Wednesday
30th July / Hall A |
|
Atsushi Moriyasu,
Producer |
 "When
it was decided that the Seiji Ozawa Music School
would be performing "The Bat", I collected
the floor plans for all the theaters in Tokyo.
At first, as the Tokyo International Forum's stage
does not have depth, I thought that it would be
difficult to hold it there. However, having seen
the hall I felt an attraction, something that
made me feel that we could put on something special
and that was the reason for Hall A being chosen
out of all the possibilities. In order to overcome
the problem of the lack of stage depth, we covered
over the area normally used as the orchestra pit
to extend the stage. To compensate for this, the
front row seats were removed to create a new orchestra
pit. As a result of the extended stage, the stage
set had to be pushed forward after the curtains
opened on the first and third acts, but this created
a very interesting effect. In fact, it resulted
in the whole tour using this stage effect.
"At first, I was so worried. David Kneuss, the
Stage Director and I had so many ideas, but the
orchestra being where the front row seats usually
are, I was not sure how this would effect the
quality of the music and how the opera fans would
rate the performance. However, the stage that
we had created had more depth than I had imagined
it to have, and the performances were beautiful
and fun to watch. The color of the Proscenium
stage went well with the set. But most of all,
it was wonderful to hear the audience's response.
Mr. Ozawa had apparently known all along that
we could do it...
"Through this performance I experienced at
first hand that it is us people that create and
build up a theater. The close Ozawa family congregated
from around the world to challenge the Tokyo International
Forum to an unprecedented use of its hall and
I felt that the Forum was worthy of such a challenge.
I love to do something that has never been done
before at a particular theater. There are always
new discoveries. I hope to continue to create
stages that light up the audience with surprise.
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