Mihoki Fujimura (L) – Fabio Luisi (R) – It all started with Wagner.
Over to Tokyo this week for a concert by the legendary NHK Symphony, guest conducted by Fabio Luisi and featuring mezzo Soprano Mihoko Fujimura in a performance of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder – broadcast live on December 3, 2022.
Mihoko Fujimura made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2002, as Fricka in Der Ring des Nibelungen. She added the roles of Waltraute and Erda in the Ring there, also Brangäne, and Kundry in Parsifal in 2008. Her role repertoire includes Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Verdi roles Eboli in Don Carlos, Azucena in Il trovatore, and Amneris in Aida, and the title roles in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss and Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. She has been a regular guest at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 2020, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as Mary in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
She is active in concert, lied and oratorio, in a repertoire including Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Rückert-Lieder, and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, and Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder. She has worked with orchestras including the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome, Orchestre de Paris, the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Bamberger Symphoniker.
Fujimura has collaborated with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-whun Chung, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Ádám Fischer, Daniele Gatti, Michael Gielen, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Mariss Jansons, Fabio Luisi, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Jonathan Nott, Donald Runnicles, Peter Schneider, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst.
Fabio Luisi is set to embark on his sixth season as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, his ninth as Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO), and his fourth as Principal Conductor of Tokyo’s NHK Orchestra. He is also Music Director of Puglia’s Festival della Valle d’Itria and Emeritus Conductor of Turin’s RAI National Symphony Orchestra. His 2025-26 highlights include Madama Butterfly in concert with the Dallas Symphony, a world premiere with the NHK Symphony, new Scriabin and Schoenberg recordings in the DNSO’s centennial season, and returns to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Dutch National Opera, and Zurich Opera.
Luisi’s previous appointments include General Music Director of Zurich Opera and Philharmonia Zurich; Principal Conductor of New York’s Metropolitan Opera; Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony; General Music Director of Dresden’s Staatskapelle and Sächsische Staatsoper; Artistic Director of the Leipzig Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk; Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; Chief Conductor of Vienna’s Tonkünstler-Orchester; and Artistic Director of the Graz Symphony. He is a frequent guest of leading orchestras, opera houses, and festivals worldwide.
Grab a coffee, sit back and enjoy the concert.
