Kazuko Hara

Japanese composer (1935–2014)

Kazuko Hara (原嘉壽子^[1], Hara Kazuko, 10 February 1935 – 30 November 2014) was a prolific Japanese opera composer.

Life and career

Born in Tokyo, she studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with Tomojiro Ikenouchi, graduating in 1957. She subsequently went to France where she studied with Henri Dutilleux and Alexander Tcherepnin. After that she returned to Japan to teach at the Osaka University of Music.

Between 1978 and 1999 she wrote 18 operas, many of them performed in Tokyo by the Nihon Opera Kyokai or the Nikikai Opera. One work was performed in Italy. In general, she has preferred Japanese subjects; exceptions include her second opera about Sherlock Holmes and an opera based on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment written for a large-scale production at the New National Theatre, Tokyo in 1999.

She died of heart failure on 30 November 2014.^[2]

Operas

The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes (Confession) after Conan Doyle (1981)
Iwai Uta ga Nagareru Yoruni (1984)
Shita wo Kamikitta Onna (1986)
Sute Hime (1989)
Yosakoi Bushi (1990)
Petro Kibe (1991)
Tsumi to batsu (Crime and Punishment) after Dostoevsky (1999)

Other works

Sonatine for piano (1957)
Preludio, aria e toccata for guitar (1970)

Recordings

Yosakoi Bushi has been recorded and published on Laserdisc.

• ‘Daniel Quinn performs Guitar music by Japanese composers’. This recording includes Kazuhiro Hara’s Prelude Aria and Toccata for guitar solo.

References

^ Her name was originally written 原和子, which has the same pronunciation.
^ 作曲家の原嘉寿子さん死去「額田女王」「青の洞門」 [Composer Kazuko Hara passes away; 'Queen Nukata', 'Blue Tunnel']. 5 February 2015. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2017.

Sources

Holledge, Simon. "Hara Kazuko: Crime and Punishment, 19th June 1999", Opera Japonica
Kanazawa, Masakata (2001). "Hara, Kazuko". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.‎
Biographical note for Daniel Quinn recital, accessed 20 January 2010

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