Tokaido Road: Chamber opera
A Journey after Hiroshige
Saturday 23 May, 7.30pm – Gulbenkian Theatre
Okeanos Ensemble
Nicola LeFanu composer
Nancy Gaffield librettist
Caroline Clegg director

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

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 draws inspiration from the ravishing mix of art forms enjoyed by the wealthy members of Edo society.

Okeanos Ensemble mixes traditional Japanese instruments, such as koto, sho and shamisen, with western ones.

More information about Tokaido Road can be found on the blog and tickets can be purchased through the Gulbenkian box office.