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FULL QUICKSAND or Manji (Kenichi Nishizawa) Tokyo 2021 Yuri Shingu, Megumi Tsuyama, Shingo Yokoyama, Atsushi Okamoto
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Quicksand or Manji
- Composer: Nishizawa Kenichi
- Libretto: Kenichi Nishizawa based on "Quicksand" written by Junichiro Tanizaki Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Tokyo, Japan
- Recorded: December 8, 2021
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Yuri Shingu, Megumi Tsuyama, Shingo Yokoyama, Atsushi Okamoto
- Conductor: Kenichi Nishizawa
- Orchestra: Manji Project Orchestra
- Stage Director: Yasuhiro Miura
- Stage Designer: Hiroko Matsuo
- Costume Designer: Yumiko Hamano
- Lighting Designer: Masatoshi Yaguchi
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Kenichi Nishizawa
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Sonoko, the wife of lawyer Kotaro, falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a wool wholesaler she meets at art school, Mitsuko. They start a forbidden love between girls relationship. However, Mitsuko is unable to break off her other relationship with her fiancé, Watanuki. At the mercy of Watanuki’s jealousy and scheming, Mitsuko and Sonoko decide an escape plan. However, this eventfully leads to Kotaro also falling in love with Mitsuko. The married couple Sonoko and Kotaro suffer from possessiveness and suspicion, while they are being dominated both body and soul by Mitsuko. Now their four destinies are woven together in this excellent opera adaption of Tanizaki’s world of love, hate, and destruction. (Libretto in Japanese, English subtitles available)
Born in Tokyo in 1978, Kenichi Nishizawa started playing piano at the age of 15, and at the same time he began teaching himself composition. In 1996, he was accepted to the Kunitachi College of Music. However, he left the college after one year. In January 1999, he was awarded both the first prize and the Kodama Prize at the Fifth International Competition of Piano Duo Music Composition. In December of that year, he won the first prize at the Fourth Tokyo International Composition Competition of Chamber Music.
In October 2005, Nishizawa made waves at the 33rd Festival Internacional Cervantino, an annual classical music event. Japan was a special guest at that particular festival as it commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Japan-Mexico Cultural Agreement. His Piano Trio No. 2 was introduced by Japanese violinist Yuriko Kuronuma and others as one of the leading pieces of classical music from Japan, putting it in the company of Ikuma Dan’s opera “Yuzuru.” Nishizawa’s piece also garnered high praise from critics.
In August 2013, Nishizawa published his first symphony. In November 2017, he published his first opera “Quicksand” (based on Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s novel). Its libretto was adapted by himself.