CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST

 A Japanese incense burner in the shape of a woodcutter. Bizen ware, 18th century,  notice the "metallic" glaze.  It belonged t...

Mark-Anthony Turnage Hibiki (2014) at the BBC Proms, with Kazushi Ono and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sally Matthews, Mihoko Fujimura, ...

Ikura Dan's Symphony no 6 "Hiroshima" (1985). The photo above isn't Hiroshima, or Nagasaki, but a still from the movie...

Ten thousand voices in unison, singing Beethoven Ode to Joy.  A clip from the legendary concert in Sendai, Japan, on December 17th  2010...

Seventy years ago today, on August 9th 1945, an atom bomb fell on Nagasaki.Why Nagasaki ? The most westernized city in Japan, the centr...

Seventy years ago today, Hiroshima was destroyed. Never must we ever forget. Today, we are in danger of taking  Hiroshima for granted ...

Yoshiko Ōtaka 大鷹 淑子) died this week, aged 94, of a heart attack. Who was she, and why does it matter? Otaka was a glamour actress who st...

With trepidation, I watched China Nights , Shina no Yoru, the notorious film made during the Japanese occupation of China. For Chinese pe...

The latest Total Immersion weekend at the Barbican Centre features Music from Japan. Or more specifically, the music of Toruy Takemitsu, ...

It's almost exactly seven years since the Anthony Minghella production of Puccini Madam Butterfly premiered at the Coliseum, London ...

It's been a year since the tsunami hit Northern Japan, followed by the emergency at Fukushima. The western news media have moved on, but...

Sixty six years ago today, a bomb fell on Hiroshima, and another soon after on Nagasaki. The world changed then, whether some realize it ...

That excellent Puccini Madama Butterfly from the Royal Opera House is now available online, internationally and on demand on BBC Radio 3.   ...

When the current production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered in 2003, I remember being startled at how stark the production see...

Strictly speaking, Madam Butterfly isn't "about" Japan. Japan is an exotic context, building upon Europe's fascination ...

"Fearing Radiation", Netrebko, Kaufmann and Calleja have withdrawn from the Met Opera's Japan tour just before it starts this ...

Will the Edinburgh Festival outshine the BBC Proms this year? Serious competition, even though lots of Edinburgh will be broadcast by BBC Ra...