Hanjo

• DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHY

  LUCA VEGGETTI

• LIGHTING AND SET DESIGN

  CLIFTON ZACHARIAH TAYLOR

• COSTUME DESIGN

  PETER SPELIOPOULOS

• VISUAL DESIGN

  MOE YOSHIDA

• SOPRANO

  ERI NAKAMURA

• MEZZOSOPRANO

  ABIGAIL ELIZABETH FISCHER

• BARITONE

  ADAM RYAN RICHARDSON

• DANCE

  ALICE RAFFAELLI

Hanjo, by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa, is a chamber opera on the theme of waiting.

The libretto is based on the drama of the same name by Yukio Mishima, in which the author draws on the tradition of the Japanese Nō theatre. The story is about the geisha Hanako, who has been waiting for years for the return of her beloved Yoshio.

However, the wait has dragged her into a world of madness, to the point that when her beloved reappears, she can't recognise him.

Reality does not correspond to the image of Yoshio she had created in her mind over the years. Composer Hosokawa has succeeced in probing the boundaries between madness and reason, by transposing an apparently simple story into a canvas of sound that shifts between dreamy lightness and harsh reality.

The score develops by drawing a sound carpet that accompanies the painful process of transformation of the protagonist, the central theme of Hanjo.