Miku Yasukawa, soprano and Yoshie Kawamura, piano

Rentarō Taki, Kōjō no Tsuki (荒城の月, ‘The Moon over the Ruined Castle’)
Kōsaku Yamada, Karatachi no Hana’ (からたちの花, ‘Trifoliate Orange’)
Tatsunosuke Kishitani, Hatsukoi (初恋, ‘First Love’)
Gaetano Donizetti, Prendi per me sei libero, L’elisir d’amore
Giacomo Puccini, Quando m’en vo’ ‘Musetta’s aria’, La bohème
Umberto Giordano, Caro mio ben

Dr Amanda Hsieh of Durham University presents a rare opportunity to hear a selection of extremely beautiful early twentieth-century Japanese art songs. These songs – exploring timeless themes of love, nature and travel – formed part of a musical landscape grounded in Japanese desires to explore a new musical medium in times of political turmoil and imperialist expansionism, and are presented as they would have originally been performed, alongside European songs and arias.

£10 standard, £5 students, £1 under-18s.