Name: The 38th Weekday Afternoon Concert
Start: 2025-06-09T14:00:00
Location: Tokyo Opera City Tower

Tokyo's 2025 cultural calendar is brimming with artistry, from the playful operatic tales of 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia' to the evocative symphonies of Beethoven and Strauss. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra stands at the heart of this artistic celebration, presenting a medley of operatic, orchestral, and ballet performances. Highlights include a unique 1960s Spanish twist on Rossini's classic opera, the enchanting ballet adaptation of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', and a series of distinguished concerts featuring both timeless classics and contemporary interpretations.

A Cultural Symphony: Tokyo's Diverse Artistic Offerings in 2025

Ken-ichiro Kobayashi

Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

With direction, choreography, set and costume design and lighting by Teshigawara Saburo, a dancer whose impeccable aesthetic sense has captivated audiences worldwide, this production of Orfeo ed Euridice once again brings to life a hauntingly beautiful world merging opera and dance. This intense and dynamic production shifting between life and death, between light and darkness, won the hearts of not only opera and dance fans but of art lovers everywhere. The broadcast of this production on OperaVision after the theatre performance has also generated considerable interest.

Orpheus and Eurydice

New National Theatre

The Nutcracker is a winter tradition at the New National Theatre Tokyo -- a long-beloved work evolving through different versions over the years since the theatre first opened. In the 2025/2026 Season, English choreographer Will Tuckett has created an original new production for the New National Theatre Tokyo. Developing not only in ballet but also in theatre and cross-genre works mixing various other artistic forms, Will Tuckett has won numerous awards, including an Olivier Award, and is globally active. This is the second work that he has created for the National Ballet of Japan, following the world premiere of The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2023. Together with Colin Richmond, the set and costume designer who also worked on The Tragedy of Macbeth, Tuckett creates a sweet and colourful world for The Nutcracker. We hope that you will enjoy this special event, set to be a new holiday tradition perfect for celebrating the Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day season.

The Nutcracker

La Traviata is set in the world of Parisian high society. This popular opera tells the story of the courtesan, Violetta Valéry: her loves and her sad fate. It is based on the dramatic adaptation of the romantic novel, "La Dame aux Camélias" by Alexandre Dumas fils, modeled by the author on the high-class mistress, Marie Duplessis. Giuseppe Verdi then took the story, making its heroine a contemporary woman, and writing an innovative opera in which he raised the role of the music itself to that of expressing the story's emotions. Starting with "Libiamo ne' lieti calici", which has become a well-known, staple tune of gala concerts, the work features numerous other famous songs, such as Violetta's most technically demanding aria, "Ah, fors'è lui-sempre libera", in the prelude foretelling tragedy, and Germont's "Di Provenza il mar, il suol".

La Traviata

This is a classic ballet which takes place in the age of Crusades, and it features possibly the last great choreography by Marius Petipa, and beautiful music composed by Alexander Glazunov. At NNTT, this classic masterpiece "Raymonda" was produced anew in October 2004. Asami Maki's intricate choreography and interpretation, modern and brisk staging, and Luisa Spinatelli's effective use of colors, costumes, and devices were all well received and it won the Asahi Performing Arts Award that year. This production was also invited to Japan Festival at the Kennedy Center in February 2008.

Raymonda

"L'elisir d'amore" is a masterpiece by Gaetano DONIZETTI, best known for his bel canto operas. It is the story of Nemorino, a youth who hears the story of how a potion made Tristan und Isolde fall in love and sets out to woo Adina, the most beautiful woman in the village. The music itself directly conveys the characters of Nemorino, the lead character, unable to convey his love as he feels it, and of Adina whose heart is in a tumult for love. At every turn we get a real feel for DONIZETTI's skill, such as in the supreme musical moment in the opera when Nemorino sings "Una furtiva lagrima", or in the bright and distinctive Sergeant Belcore, the villain of the piece, or in Dr. Dulcamara's witty personality. The lively voice of the chorus further rouses the mood on stage. This production by Cesare LIEVI (first staged in 2009) saw the appearance of props like a 9-meter-long book and huge letters of the alphabet, and an actual-size small airplane, earning it a reputation for playfulness and on-the-mark psychological portrayals.

L'elisir d'amore

Goethe's classic "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther)", an eighteenth-century novel depicting the anguish of love and heartbreak, has been read all over the world. Composed over a century after the novel, Jules Massenet's opera Werther adds French romantic passion to Goethe's text, bringing it even closer to the heart. The work has many memorable moments, from the dramatic overture to Charlotte's "Air des lettres" and Werther's soulful aria "Porquoi me réveiller?" The staging by Nicolas JOEL, first seen in 2016, faithfully recreates the atmosphere of the original story and places the focus on Werther's sentiments.

Werther

The production that opened the 2021/2022 Season to much acclaim now returns to this season. This production by Sir Peter Wright is a stately work, full of dramatic elements that are very British. We trust you will enjoy this production of Swan Lake, combining the traditional charm of classic ballet with a new sense of drama.

Swan Lake

Elektra is a story of gruesome revenge. A daughter of the blood-soaked House of Atreus, Elektra burns with a blind passion for revenge and takes her own life after achieving her greatest wish. This opera condenses the Greek tragic drama from Sophocles into a one-act drama. Featuring what could be called one of the densest orchestrations in opera history as well as dramatically soaring soprano lines, the music conveys a dizzying array of powerful emotions--tension, hate, fear, joy and ecstasy--with superb elegance.

The 38th Weekday Afternoon Concert

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