Yoko Watanabe; Japanese Soprano
Hyfler/Rosner
By Associated Press
July 23 2004, 10:23 AM CDT
TOKYO -- Yoko Watanabe, the first Japanese opera soprano to
have starred at the world's top four opera houses, has died
in Italy, a Japan Opera Foundation official said Friday. She
was 51.
Watanabe died at her home in Milan, Italy, on July 15, said
Teruko Tsubaki, the foundation official.
Tsubaki refused to specify the cause of Watanabe's death.
Watanabe was diagnosed with cancer in January 2000, she
said.
After graduating from the Tokyo National University of Fine
Arts and Music in 1976, Watanabe left for Italy to study
opera. She spent two years at an institute tied to La Scala,
Milan's opera house.
In 1978, the 25-year-old Watanabe made her debut in Europe,
but mostly performed in Italy.
She returned to Japan in 1985 for her much-celebrated first
performance at home with the Fujiwara Opera troupe, as
Butterfly in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly." It was to be her
signature role.
Although at times critics thought her singing lacked
precision, she made up for it with sheer intensity. Over the
course of her career, she appeared as Butterfly in hundreds
of performances at opera houses around the world.
"She was the first Japanese ever to have performed lead
roles in the world's four major opera houses," Tsubaki said,
referring to La Scala; Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna, Austria;
Metropolitan Opera in New York; and the Royal Opera House in
London.
Watanabe also won leading roles in Charles Gounod's "Faust,"
Bizet's "Carmen," Mozart's "Don Giovanni," and Puccini's "La
Boheme" and "Turandot."
"She was better known for being a splendid opera singer
abroad than in Japan," Tsubaki said.
In December 1999, Watanabe fell ill during a performance. A
month later, doctors said she had cancer, prompting her to
retire after a 21-year career and undergo treatment.
Watanabe is survived by her husband, the former Italian
tenor Renat Glimard.
Hyfler/Rosner
Yoko Watanabe, Soprano Renowned as Puccini's 'Butterfly,'
Dies at 51
By ALLAN KOZINN
Yoko Watanabe, a Japanese soprano who was renowned for the
gracefulness and intensity of her portrayal of Cio-Cio-San,
the tragic title character of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly,"
died on July 15 at her home in Milan. She was 51.
A Japan Opera Foundation official announced her death to The
Associated Press but did not give a cause. Miss Watanabe
learned she had cancer in 2000.
Miss Watanabe was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1953 and early
on, hoped to make a career as a dancer. She began studying
Japanese dance when she was 3 and ballet when she was 6, but
gave up dancing when her teachers said she was too tall and
broad-shouldered for a professional career. She then took up
the piano and became an accomplished player.
Miss Watanabe gave recitals until she was 18, but she was
already thinking about the opera stage. When she was 16, she
attended a performance of "Madama Butterfly" that, she said
later, changed her life.
"I knew immediately that I wanted to sing opera," she told
The New York Times in 1988. "When the performance was over,
I went to the stage door and asked the soprano who sang
Cio-Cio-San - Kuniko Kozono - to please teach me. And she
did."
From there, Miss Watanabe continued her studies at the
University of Japan in Tokyo. A competition victory in 1976
took her to La Scala in Milan, where she continued her
studies. Miss Watanabe had won second prize in that Tokyo
competition. The first-prize winner was Renato Grimaldi, an
Italian tenor whom she married and who survives her.
Another competition victory led to Miss Watanabe's
professional debut, as Nedda in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci,"
in Treviso, Italy, in 1978. She made her La Scala debut in
1985 as Liù in Puccini's "Turandot," and in her 20-year
career she sang other major Puccini heroines as well as
roles in works of Mozart, Verdi, Gounod and Bizet.
But the portrayal for which she was best known was
Cio-Cio-San, the geisha who marries an American naval
officer and is abandoned by him. It was as Cio-Cio-San that
she made her debuts with the Royal Opera in 1983, the Lyric
Opera of Chicago in 1986, and the Metropolitan Opera in
1987.
Reviewing her Met debut for The New York Times, Will
Crutchfield described Miss Watanabe's tone as having "more
metal than cream in it" but praised her "heartfelt
portrayal" and the subtleties of her characterization. Part
of her success, too, came from the way she balanced Western
and Japanese acting styles.
"I am Japanese, and my figure is Japanese," she said, "but
the music is Italian, so I try not to do too much of what we
would think of as Japanese theatrical movement. In Japanese
theater, our movements are very small. We walk in small
steps, we make small gestures. I don't believe those would
really convey the character of Butterfly fully to the
public. After all, this is a very dramatic opera."
Miss Watanabe collapsed during a performance in December
1999 and retired a month later when her doctors diagnosed
her cancer.