Director Matthew Ozawa- director of Cincinnati Opera’s performance of “Romeo and Juliet” - talks with Evans about how he fell in love with opera, how he created his career out of the world of instrumental music and into directing, his interesting heritage, and how he gets people to “play well together”. Learn why “be kind to everybody” is one of Matthew’s directorial mottos and how collaboration is like the art of origami.
Show Notes:
Carmen is an opera by French composer Georges Bizet.
The San Diego Opera Association (SDO) is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California.
La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini.
Rusalka is an opera ('lyric fairy tale') by Antonín Dvořák.
Eugene Onegin is an opera composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
Seiji Ozawa is a Japanese conductor known for his advocacy of modern composers and for his work with the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans evicted from the West Coast Exclusion Zone during World War II by executive order from President Franklin Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
The Holocaust was the World War II genocide of the European Jews.
An American Dream is an opera by Jack Perla, a composer and pianist.
Everything Is Illuminated is a 2005 biographical comedy-drama film, written and directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant and author.
Boris Goldovsky was a Russian-born conductor and broadcast commentator, active in the United States. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America.
Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet) is an opera by Charles Gounod.
The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
La bohème is an opera composed by Giacomo Puccini.
Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Nicole Cabell is an American operatic soprano. She recently played Juliet in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliet.
Matthew White recently played Romeo in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliet.
Traditional Japanese theatre includes Kabuki, Noh(and its comic accompaniment, Kyōgen) and the puppet theatre, Bunraku.
Jennifer Good is the Managing Director of Production at the San Francisco Opera.
Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company.
Rupert Hemmings is the Vice President of Artistic Planning at the LA Opera.
Paul Moser is an American philosopher who writes on epistemology and the philosophy of religion. He is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago and past editor of the American Philosophical Quarterly.
Houston Ballet, operated by Houston Ballet Foundation, is the fourth-largest professional ballet company in the United States, based in Houston, Texas.
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist.
Mozawa is a performing arts company that, through hybridity and fusion, aims to break down the barriers that exist between differing artistic media and cultures.
Nabucco is an Italian-language opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
Franco Zeffirelli was an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television.
Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture.
Don Carlos is a (historical) tragedy in five acts by Friedrich Schiller.
Sir Derek Jacobi is an English actor and stage director.
Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini.
Ana Martínez is a Puerto Rican soprano.
Kelly Kaduce is an American soprano.
Robert Wilson is an American experimental theater stage director and playwright who has been described by the media as "[America]'s – or even the world's – foremost vanguard 'theater artist'".
Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) is an opera by Richard Strauss.
The Turn of the Screw is a 20th-century English chamber opera composed by Benjamin Britten.
The Rake's Progress is an English-language opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky.
Marco Polo is an opera by the Chinese-born composer Tan Dun.
Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics).
My Fair Lady is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.
Stephen Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theatre.
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
Isaac Mizrahi is an American fashion designer, TV presenter, and Chief Designer of the Isaac Mizrahi brand for Xcel Brands.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO), located in Houston, Texas, was founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert.
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) is an American summer opera festival held in St. Louis, Missouri.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical thriller with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
American Gods (2001) is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman.
Dark is a German science fiction thriller web television series.
Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation network company offering services that include peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing, food delivery, and a bicycle-sharing system.
The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, originally known as the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge spans the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky.
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City.
Matthew mentions Beyoncé as one of his favorite artists outside of the opera world.