Chinese soprano Hui He plays the role of Butterfly in Puccini's Opera Madama Butterfly at the Opera House in Oslo this season. The building itself is a quite famous sculptural complex by Snøhetta architects, well worth a visit.
To add to the experience of Madama Butterfly the Opera announced an open Tea Ceremony gathering this weekend. I was lucky to get a good seat and it all turned out to be a beautiful collaboration of music and tea ceremony. One of the violinists of the Opera Orchestra, Yukiko Mikami, introduced the themes from Japanese music in the Madama Butterfly and talked about Puccini's interpretation of them.
The Tea Ceremoni was demonstrated elegantly by Yasuko Oki from the Omotesenke school. Yasuko Oki is also a florist, with an exam from Mami flower design school in Japan, and had made a refreshing summer arrangement with floating flowers for the ceremony.
It's so nice meeting new people and extend the network of people engaged in Japanese arts. I'll definitely watch out for more opportunities to meet both Yukiko Mikami and Yasuko Oki.
