Kazuko Hara

Kazuko Hara (原 嘉壽子) 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.

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.