{"id":870,"date":"2015-05-11T11:47:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T10:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/?p=870"},"modified":"2017-04-20T12:38:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T11:38:29","slug":"tokaido-road-chamber-opera-saturday-23-may-gulbenkian-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/2015\/05\/11\/tokaido-road-chamber-opera-saturday-23-may-gulbenkian-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokaido Road: Chamber opera – Saturday 23 May (Gulbenkian Theatre)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Festival of English <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Tokaido Road: Chamber opera\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span>A Journey after Hiroshige<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span>Saturday 23 May, 7.30pm – Gulbenkian Theatre<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Okeanos Ensemble<\/strong>
\nNicola LeFanu<\/strong> composer
\nNancy Gaffield<\/strong> librettist
\nCaroline Clegg <\/strong>director<\/p>\n

Tokaido Road<\/em> is a new multi-media chamber opera, with music by Nicola LeFanu, based on the award-winning cycle of poems by Nancy Gaffield<\/a> (Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of English). The University of Kent is delighted to be welcoming the opera to Canterbury as part of the University of Kent’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations and the Festival of English<\/a>. The chamber opera premiered last year at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival and received a four-star review<\/a> from The Times’<\/em> Hilary Finch, before enjoying a sell-out performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.<\/p>\n

The fifty-minute work is set in the rich, hedonistic ‘Floating World’ of Japan’s Edo period. A composite of music, poetry, mime, dance and visual imagery, Tokaido Road<\/em> draws inspiration from the ravishing mix of art forms enjoyed by the wealthy members of Edo society. Taking its name from the series of vivid woodblock prints by Japanese artist Hiroshige, the opera brings Hiro \u2013 the figure present in every picture \u2013 to life. Journeying from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto against a backdrop of old and new images, Hiro tells of his encounters \u2013 humorous, amorous, tragic \u2013 through mime, dance, speech and song.<\/p>\n

Okeanos Ensemble mixes traditional Japanese instruments, such as koto, sho and shamisen, with western ones.<\/p>\n

More information about Tokaido Road<\/em> can be found on the blog<\/a> and tickets can be purchased through the Gulbenkian box office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tokaido Road: Lunchtime Concert<\/strong>
\n\u2026this floating, fleeting world\u2026<\/p>\n

Friday 22 May, 2015 \u2013 1.10pm<\/strong> <\/span>Colyer-Fergusson Hall<\/span><\/strong><\/a>
\nOpen to all. Admission is free, but with a suggested donation of \u00a33<\/p>\n

A concert of music for two pianos and piano duet, exploring East-West themes including music by Ravel and Debussy, together with poems by Nancy Gaffield from the Tokaido Road cycle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Festival of English Tokaido Road: Chamber opera\u00a0 A Journey after Hiroshige Saturday 23 May, 7.30pm – Gulbenkian Theatre Okeanos Ensemble Nicola LeFanu composer Nancy … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2400,"featured_media":871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,143219,124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}