press releases
Last season as Music Director of the Theatre Royal de La Monnaie, marks leap into international opera scene
OPERATIC DEBUT AT LA SCALA IN JUNE 2007
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk:
June 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 19, 21 dir: Richard Jones
Following the success of his symphonic concerts with the orchestra of La Scala last season, Kazushi Ono will return to make his operatic debut conducting Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in June. Russian Repertoire is one of the Japanese conductor’s fortes at La Monnaie in Brussels, where highly acclaimed performances included: ‘Fiery Angel’ (Prokofiev), Khovanchina (Mussorgsky) and ‘Boris Godounov’, which received the French Critics’ European Awards for 2006. He is invited to return to La Scala in Milan again in April 2008.
Kazushi Ono’s three debuts in the 2007-8 season commence at the Metropolitan Opera in New York where he will open the season with Verdi’s ‘Aida’ (Sept-Nov 2007), the Opera de Paris with Hindemith’s ‘Cardillac’ (Jan – Feb 2008), and Glyndebourne for the new production of Humperdinck’s ‘Hänsel and Gretel’ (July - Aug 2008).
Wide Ranging Operatic and Orchestral Repertoire
As Music Director of La Monnaie in Brussels since 2002, Ono has promoted a wide range of repertoire from Mozart (Don Giovanni), Verdi (I Due Foscari/Aida/Falstaff), Wagner (Tannhäuser/ Der Fliegende Holländer/ Tristan und Isolde), R.Strauss (Elektra/Die Frau ohne Schatten), Britten (Peter Grimes/The Turn of The Screw), Mussorgsky (Khovanchina/ Boris Godounov), Prokofiev (The Fiery Angel) to contemporary operas such as “I Luci mie traditorici” by Sciarrino.
Kazushi Ono has conducted several world premieres including ‘Hanjo’ by Hosokawa (Aix-en Provence Festival), ‘Ballata’ by Francesconi, and ‘Julie’ by Philippe Boesmans, which won the Grand Prix for the French critics’ Awards in 2006. He received a European award for his ‘Boris Godounov’ performance.
His appointment in Brussels was described as ‘The Luck of La Monnaie’ (Le Monde de la Musique), or ‘The Miracle of Brussels’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
His wide-ranging symphonic repertoire exhibited itself again when he replaced a conductor for a week of concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, to conduct Fauré’s ‘Dolly Suite’ Ravel’s ‘Sheherazade’ and ‘Pavane’, Sibelius Symphony No 2 and Brahms second piano concerto.
‘Losses prove a winner’ The players of the LPO responded warmly to Ono's direction, with the strings, even in the reduced numbers necessitated by the QEH's stage, finding plenty of full-bodied tone to match the power of the brass in the climaxes.’ (Telegraph)
Born in Tokyo, Kazushi Ono studied German repertoire at the Bavarian State Opera with Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch and Italian repertoire with Maestro Giuseppe Patane. He was Principal Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic (1992-99), General Music Director of the Baden State Opera in Karlsruhe (1996-2002), where he conducted almost all Wagner’s operas including ‘The Ring’ cycle. Apart from his mother tongue, Japanese, he is fluent in German, Italian, French and English.
Guest conducting
Kazushi Ono will remain Music Director at La Monnaie until the end of the 2008 season. As well as continuing his commitments in Brussels, he will guest conduct at the world’s most prestigious opera houses. He is scheduled to conduct German repertoire at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, having successfully conducted ‘Tannhäuser’ there in April 2006 at very short notice.
Kazushi Ono’s orchestral guest conducting in the future includes: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Boston Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Radio Symphony Orchestras in Germany, and Austria, Santa Cecilia in Rome, the RAI, and orchestras in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Kazushi Ono will conduct a new Lepage production of ‘The Rake’s Progress’ in April at La Monnaie, which will be a co-production with San Francisco Opera and the Teatro Real de Madrid.
In July 2007 he will take the orchestra of the Lyon Opera to the Festival of Montpellier and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France to the Choregies d’Orange.
PRESS REVIEWS
Boris Godounov
‘Musically, it is stunning. Under the generous and regal direction of Kazushi Ono, the Orchestre de la Monnaie transforms itself…’ (Le Monde)
‘…an electrifying interpretation,..’..(FAZ)
‘Under the direction of Kazushi Ono it brings out Mussorgsky's peculiarly raw instrumentation with a tautness which is seldom heard.'(NZZ)
Tristan & Isolde
‘…Kazushi Ono illuminates the black velvet of this production with a myriad of subtle lights ….’(Le Soir)
‘Under the magical direction of Kazushi Ono, the performance at La Monnaie, was sensational. Kazushi Ono is a maestro of unbelievable artistic growth…’(El Pais)
‘Kazushi Ono conducts this complex score with a remarkably analytical precision. Balance is difficult to achieve in the prelude, where a willingness to fall into pathos leads to somewhat restrained conducting, but this is justified in the context of the work’s dramatic construction. Supported by a homogeneous orchestra, with very fine wind playing, he finds the right balance of sound and staging showcased in la Monnaie.’ (Le Figaro)
‘Kazushi Ono and his Orchestra of the Monnaie vividly bring out the varied and colourful expressive elements of the score, and play with captivating symphonic energy, emotional strength and restrained fire - fantastic!’ (Opernwelt)
‘The thread of the plot emerges from the ether of Richard Wagner's music, brilliantly interpreted by Kazushi Ono from the pit. There is such a timeless style of stage direction, inspired by the score's broadly expansive phrases, that a certain static quality is inevitable……..Ono, conducting the Orchestra of the Monnaie, underlined the timeless yearning of the protagonists and the essentially intangible transcendental nature of the score with almost endlessly broad, wonderfully uniform and coherent phrases. His conducting won the audience over with its fragile clarity and inspired detail, and blended magically with the director's vision.’(Opernglas)
‘Le Choc des Tristan’ ….thanks to the orchestra and the fabulous conducting of Kazushi Ono. Everything is there, the force, the nuances and the colours. The narrative tension, devoid of irony, is superbly portrayed with flexible tempi. Ono is quite outstanding in his direction of the singers.’ (Le Monde de la Musique)
The Fiery Angel
The musical director of the Theatre de la Monnaie, Kazushi Ono, succeeded in
giving us a perfect example of yearning tone colour and rhythmic sharpness.
Seldom have we heard from the pit such a soft sound from the high strings,
or such vehement and aggressive playing from the brass, whilst maintaining sharpness and clarity, or woodwind displaying such a broad spectrum of colours.
(Opernwelt).
‘….what the orchestra of La Monnaie achieves under its chief conductor Kazushi Ono, deserves high praise. Ono is a master of the development of sounds and phrasing, and at the same time he has a marked feeling for rhythm. When conducting ‘Tannhauser’, modern classics or avant-garde, his profile is immediately recognisable.’ (NZZ)
‘Simply divine. A blockbuster Fiery Angel inspires manic devotion in Hugh Canning.’ (Sunday Times).
‘Kazushi Ono is the name of the virtuoso fireman conducting, and he makes the orchestra kindle his instrumental flame throwers fully, with verve and rhythmical precision.’ (Die Welt)
‘Kazushi Ono conducts with fire and precision, the orchestra of La Monnaie, that is singularly virtuoso and homogenous….’ (La Croix)
‘At the head of the concentrated and energetic orchestra of La Monnaie, Kazushi Ono is once again the triumph of the evening. His conducting is energetic and precise, clear and profound. It brings out the violence of the story and the suffering of the characters.’ (La Scène)
‘It was left to Kazushi Ono and his orchestra to inspire us with Prokofiev’s motor-driven rhythmic patterns and sizzling crescendos.’ (Financial Times).
OTHER PRESS REVIEWS
Proms 2006
‘…. Ono, music director at La Monnaie in Brussels, is an impressively attentive conductor. As well as steering the BBC National Orchestra of Wales expertly through the thickets of Hosokawa's score, he ensured carefully detailed support…’( The Guardian)
Châtelet/ Bassarides
‘Facing the prospect of cancellation of the performance due to striking technical personnel of l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ono adapted Henze’s vast score into a version for 21 musicians. The performances in the presence of Henze were sensational.’
‘ Conducted by Kazushi Ono, with a mastering of the sense of drama which evoked the great moments of Claudio Abbado’ (Le Monde de la Musique)
La Scala Symphony Concerts
Il Giornale Milano:
‘Kazushi Ono is a beautiful conductor. One who unites the squaring characteristic of the sons of the rising sun and all that he has been able to learn and assimilate from middle Europe…’
‘In the end one is left with a feeling of refinement and culture….’
‘Shéhérazade was conducted with accentuated sound ... catching the musicality and poetry of the violinist ...’
La Repubblica:
‘.. constructed with elegance and conducted with strength …’
‘Clean sound, imagination in the phrasing well provoked by Ono (Mozart) (...) Ample and voluminous, but with hints of humour and of narrative tone, all but redundant and very effective, his picturesque and exciting interpretation attentive to the confrontations of the highly imaginative instrumental tints idealized by the composer, convinced both the orchestra and the public.’
Discography with L’Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie
Mahler 2nd Symphony (Warner)
Rihm, Turnage, Benjamin (Warner)
Prokofiev Five Piano Concertos (Solist: El Bacha) (Fuga Libera)
DVD
AIDA (Stage Direction: Robert Wilson)
JULIE (Philippe Boesmans/ Stage Direction: Luc Bondy)
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