Current location:Global Gallery news portal > style
VOX POPULI: China always occupied a special place in Ozawa’s heart
Global Gallery news portal2024-05-08 22:33:16【style】6People have gathered around
IntroductionIf memory serves, I met conductor Seiji Ozawa in Beijing around 20 years ago when he was working wit
If memory serves, I met conductor Seiji Ozawa in Beijing around 20 years ago when he was working with a group of young Chinese on the opera “The Barber of Seville” composed by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868).
I vividly recall his look of tremendous satisfaction, mixed with surprise, as he told me happily, “The rise of the level of music in China is simply astounding.”
Ozawa, who died Feb. 6 at age 88, was born in 1935 in the former Manchurian city of Mukden (present-day Shenyang). He was said to have been named Seiji after two senior officers of the Kwantung Army--Seishiro Itagaki (1885-1948) and Kanji Ishihara (1889-1949).
Probably because of his background, Ozawa always had a special affection for China. He often referred to himself as “someone who was born in China and grew up in Japan.”
When he revisited China after World War II, Ozawa recalled the tragic history of the Sino-Japanese War, and his eyes were sometimes said to be red from weeping as he stood on the podium.
Around the time of his global debut, racial discrimination and prejudice toward Japanese was not unusual in Europe and the United States. There, people just assumed no Japanese conductor could really understand Bach.
Ozawa struggled to find his own identity. His search for roots, if you will, may have made him aware of his feelings for China.
If you watched him from a distance, he was “Ozawa of the world” who only had to wave his magic baton to melt national borders so he could easily jump over them.
But I will never forget these words he spoke quietly: “How far can Asians understand classical music that was born in Europe? My life is an experiment to find out.”
Ozawa valued personal ties. He once said of the Japan-China relationship, “What matters is each individual person. What ordinary citizens think is far more important than what the government thinks. That, at least, is what I believe.”
--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 10
* *
*Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Address of this article:http://eritrea.parkandlife.com/news-76b899923.html
Very good!(2)
Related articles
- Chinese New Year: Conveying a message of unity and hope
- Jury finds Wisconsin man sane in sexual assault, killing of toddler
- Watch where you're going! Heart
- Former students of the for
- Luis Miranda Jr. reflects on giving, the arts and his son Lin
- The wedding menu that put 80 guests in hospital and left more than 100 people vomiting is revealed
- How AI is facing its 'Oppenheimer moment'
- 'Lock your doors... everyone lock your doors!' Minute
- Hurricanes shut down on power play again, fall into 0
- Mississippi Medicaid expansion plan could struggle for bipartisan support, Democratic leader says
Popular articles
Recommended
China's benchmark interbank gold prices mixed Monday
Edmunds: 2024 Kia Niro versus 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross
How to ensure your iPhone alarm goes off
Starbucks lowers guidance, promises new drinks and deals after customer traffic fell in weak Q2
Beauty guru, 24, stuns the internet after making a cup of TEA using a set of $3,000 acrylic nails
Paul Auster, prolific and experimental man of letters and filmmaker, dies at 77
Boca Bash boaters appear in bleary
Student protests take over some campuses. At others, attention is elsewhere
Links
- Top Pakistan medical official resigns for mishandling fast bowler's elbow injury
- China expresses grave concerns over Japan's planned export controls
- Jordan condemns Israeli settlers' assault on Jordanian aid convoy to Gaza
- Tadej Pogačar is starting his first Giro d'Italia as the overwhelming favorite
- Frat boys at UNC Chapel Hill surround American flag in protection as pro Palestine mob runs wild
- US Fed keeps interest rates unchanged at 5.25
- Dozens of pro
- UN mission leaves DRC's South Kivu province as part of withdrawal plan
- How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 5/1/2024
- West Indies cricketer Devon Thomas banned for 5 years for match fixing