Brooke McCorkle Okazaki, Gender, Japan and the Takarazuka Revue’s 1968 ‘Tristan and Isolde’

July 2020, Volume 14, Number 2, 38–55.

In 1967, Japan’s classical music world was abuzz. For the first time in its illustrious history, the Bayreuth Festival would perform abroad. Its destination: Osaka, Japan. There Bayreuth cast and crew members would offer Japanese opera aficionados multiple performances of Wieland Wagner’s productions of Die Walküre and Tristan und Isolde as part of the Osaka International Festival’s tenth anniversary. The latter was performed under the baton of Pierre Boulez with the local NHK Orchestra accompanying. While this was neither the first time a German opera company had toured Japan, nor was it the national premiere of Tristan und Isolde, the Bayreuth Festival’s tour to Osaka was momentous.