The festival of Russian culture in Japan opened to a full hall

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TOKYO, April 22. Despite calls to boycott the Festival of Russian Culture in Japan, its opening in the Kioi hall took place with a full hall, the correspondent reports.
The attempt to organize a picket in front of the hall turned out to be unsuccessful and small in number — the security did not let a group of eight people with Ukrainian flags, with painted faces and a naked torso come close. Earlier, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan called for a boycott of the festival on social networks. Judging by the fact that there are no empty seats in the hall, the calls went unheard.

This year’s festival has begun from a concert of young Russian stars and Japanese musicians.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Japan Nikolai Nozdrev and Deputy Chairman of the Festival from the Japanese side, actress Komaki Kurihara, addressed the guests and participants of the festival with a welcoming speech.
The concert that opened the festival was dedicated to several anniversaries celebrated this year: the 225th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin, the 185th anniversary of the birth of M.P. Mussorgsky, the 180th anniversary of the birth of N.A. .Rimsky-Korsakov. The slogan of the festival is “There is no politics in art, music has no boundaries.”
< br />From the Russian side, the winner of the XVII International Competition will take part in the concert. P.I. Tchaikovsky Lev Zhuravsky (clarinet), winner of the first prize of the international piano competition Wandering music stars Elizaveta Klyuchereva, winner of the IV International competition of percussion performers in St. Petersburg Andrey Taranukha. Japanese musicians are represented by pianist Kanon Matsuda, soprano Hatsue Nakamura and violinist Teiko Maehashi.

The program will feature romances based on poems by A.S. Pushkin, works by Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Pletnev and other composers.
On Tuesday, young Russian musicians will open the series of concerts “New Stars of Russia – 2024” as part of the “Embassy of Excellence” project of the St. Petersburg House of Music under the direction of Sergei Roldugin.
At the end of May, the Moscow Art Theater will tour in Japan for the first time in 36 years. A.P. Chekhov, the Japanese public will be presented with the play “Duel” based on the work of the same name by A.P. Chekhov.

The festival program for this year includes about 30 events: film screenings of films based on the works of Pushkin “Tsar Saltan” and “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, films-operas to the music of Mussorgsky “Khovanshchina” and “Boris Godunov”, anniversary concerts dedicated to the 185th anniversary of birth of M.P. Mussorgsky, 225th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin and 180th anniversary of the birth of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Petipa Prix ballet competition, Andrei Tarkovsky film festival, film festival in honor of the 100th anniversary of the creation «Mosfilm», folk music concerts and performances by ballet dancers.
The festival of Russian culture in Japan has been taking place since 2006, during which time it has been visited by more than 23 million people. The festival included more than 500 events — concerts, exhibitions and other cultural events in all 47 prefectures of Japan, and more than 11 thousand Russian cultural figures took part in them. From 2021 until his tragic death, the organizing committee on the Japanese side was headed by ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.