The 2022–23 season announced by artistic directors Kazushi Ono (Opera) and Miyako Yoshida (Ballet and Dance) marks the 25th anniversary of the New National Theatre, Tokyo. The after-effects of the pandemic are still being felt and the new season includes productions that were cancelled in 2020 along with invitations to many of the singers who were prevented from travelling to Japan. If not quite “business as normal” – only three new opera productions are scheduled rather than the usual four – there is certainly the sense of a company reinvigorated, ready to enjoy its 25th birthday celebrations.
One of the operas that should have played in 2020 was Laurent Pelly’s staging of Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, which would have been the first work in NNTT’s Baroque Opera Series. That honour has since fallen to Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (scheduled for May 2022) but it’s great to see Pelly’s “Night in the Museum” Giulio Cesare production, well known from its appearances in Paris, finally making it to the Tokyo Opera Palace stage. Rinaldo Alessandrini brings his impeccable period instrument credentials to the pit and the cast is led by Marianne Neate Kielland as the Roman general, while soprano Mari Moriya tackles the challenging role – eight arias if performed in full – of Cleopatra. Japanese mezzo-soprano Mika Kaneko sings Sesto, out to avenge the death of his father.
Mariusz Treliński’s production of Boris Godunov is the season’s second new staging, a co-production with Polish National Opera where the planned premiere was cancelled in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In Mussorgsky’s opera, one of the central “characters” is arguably the chorus, beaten into acclaiming their new tsar and suffering under his rule. Treliński stages the opera as a contemporary psychological drama “about our fear of our own existence, inferiority complex, and loneliness”, with only the chronicler monk Pimen in classic period costume. The production is conducted by Ono, who has worked with Treliński before on Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel in an acclaimed production at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2018. Boris, being seen for the first time at the NNTT, should be one of the season’s hot tickets. Evgeny Nikitin sings the troubled tsar.
The third new production will be Emilio Sagi’s staging of Rigoletto, already seen at the Bilbao Opera and Palau de les Arts in Valencia, in which lighting plays a key role. Baritone George Petean sings the title role, while Hasmik Torosyan is Gilda and Peruvian tenor Iván Ayón-Rivas is the licentious Duke of Mantua. Maurizio Benini conducts, his first return to NNTT since his 1998 debut.