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Multi-directional Opera
for the 21st Century

Japanese Site
Whaletone Opera - Act Three
- Curing Tonosama
February 2005

WHALETONE DAY 1

Fifteen local people, ten who took part last year. Aged from 22 to 55. Also last night Takamine (an artist from Kyoto) and three other artists who were nearby.

Nomura said he did not want to do too much of the story because it was only Tuesday and the performance not until Sunday, so it is better to be more dangerous.

We meet Tuesday, Wed, Thur, Fri evening 7-9.30, then 10-6 Saturday, 10-2 Sunday and performance at 3. In the first half of the concert we will have a wind band playing music by Nomura and I from Acts 1 and 2 and some other music. We have three extra artists arriving on Friday evening and one only on saturday evening.

We spoke about act 2 and sang some bits and spent time on `say tegera tegera to a cockera cockera toy..` (the witches chant). They all learned it and Nomura decided that they sounded very Japanese the way they said it compared with in England. (Later they might listen to the original version on the website and compare! ) Nomura described at length, and we acted, Hippo in the bath with all her bath toys.

We got to Blackpool and asked what it meant?

Two main answers - We decided to do some calligraphy tomorrow and to think overnight about Blackpool.

Next I asked everybody to find something. We found ice, a card from Brazil, soil in a cup, a plaster, a wine bottle, a tray, a skipping rope, a ufo-voice translator, a good-luck charm, an empty crisp packet, a camera, a devil-mask, a cd case, a sweeping broom and more. So we had to choose some objects we liked (in groups of 4 or 5) and get together with those people.

Each group had to make something up. We had- We shared them with each other before we finished and had lots of laughing.

OTHER NEWS It is cold again in the north, but also fantastic to be here again in this upside down baby`s cradle of a theatre with Riken and Tama and everyone.

Before we began last night, Nomura and I went to an onsen in the nearby mountain (Mount Zao). We sat outside in the steaming water in the mountains of snow. Our skin became soft and our faces red.

This morning we visited a primary school nearby and made lots of piece of music and invented three new techniques for recorder playing. It snowed the whole time. The children were the same age as Laurie and we ate lunch together in the classroom afterwards. We had the beans for throwing tomorrow, but didn`t throw them.

This morning earlier I walked by the river and the swans sang a hocket and the sky was grey and sunny. My breakfast was a strage mix of east and west.

Some new words I have learned-
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