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General Artistic Director@OKAMURA Takao
Almost everybody who knows "Japan" is more likely to be acquainted with Toyota, Nissan, or Sony, and so on, than the word "Nippon". It so happens that our products are a lot more famous than our culture. How many individuals know that we have the most splendid public entertainments such as Noh, or Kabuki? After considerable years of spending my time singing at operas in Europe, I founded this "NPO Opera del Popolo / Minnano Opera" so as to create a more cultural image of our country.
When I look at how they treat opera in the western nations, it seems that the opera is somewhat like a barometer to measure the cultural degree of regions or even countries. So my conclusion sounded like "Japan will also be known as a highly cultured nation, if the opera will get more popular", and not while the opera is still treated like some kind of high-standard entertainment, among very few hi-society minded, and seen mostly at big cities nowadays. The opera should be enjoyed by everybody everywhere in this country...
The opera is an entertainment artwork created by and for the western people. We would have to find some pieces to fit naturally into our soil for our peoples to discover the fantastics of this genre. Thus we came to choose "Die Zauberflöte" (by W.A.Mozart) -- based on a [some-time]-and-[some-where] land --, and "Ciocio-san" (revised edtition of "Madama Butterfly" by G.Puccini) -- based on Nagasaki--, to be re-edited for our regular repertoires. Unlike other opera organizations, our vision stands firm to this concept.
Also, while other especially major opera organizations tend to feature their own casts from privately owned institutions, we keep our stance to choose all casts from audition applicants. Our auditions are absolutely borderless to musical backgrounds, nationality, or residentional conditions, and we also do not impose any ticket assignments, whereas almost every opera organization uses this system to gather the necessary performance requirements. Singers who want to perform in the same role as the former performance are welcomed to the stage without the audition, and more and more talented performers have their names listed on the waiting board. It also happens that singers who have some respectful background such as overseas performances, are beginning to enter in our auditions. Regardless of whatever career they may have, some are successful enough to achieve their desired position, some others find their names in unexpected role parts, and many others will have to bear the unbearable.
We sell our tickets at a reasonable price (almost half of other major organizations). We also design our performances for our audience to feel entertained without pre-knowlege of the play, by fitting in a little narration before each act. Our aim to create opera performances of fine quality at a reasonable price, inconsistent as it may seem, could only be achieved by many supportive leading artists from every fields, and with our unique methods and ability to create fulfilling entertainments at a lowest budget ever.
