Ryuichi Sakamoto - Fragments - with Shiro Takatani (Japan)

28 May Tue, 8pm Esplanade Theatre

Photo by SKMTDOC, LLC

1hr 15m, no intermission

MESSAGE FROM THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR When I was appointed as the new Festival Director for Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) last year, one of the central tenets of the curation process we put in place was to present work by game-changing artists.

From the outset of my three-year tenure, it was important to me that SIFA challenges audiences intellectually, emotionally and artistically, allowing them to experience works they would not normally have a chance to see in Singapore.

Last year, I found myself huddled amid the sand dunes and pine forests of Terschelling Island off the north coast of The Netherlands, to watch Bedtime Stories, a brilliant one-man show which we are bringing to SIFA this year.

It reminds us that powerful stories can be told with the simplest of tools - in this case, the actor’s voice. Or through elaborate work such as the cross-cultural, multi-faceted Dionysus

by Tadashi Suzuki. Game-changing artists and work exist everywhere – it is our mission to find them and bring them to you.

This season, SIFA 2019 is proud to present provocative and challenging works by artists from Singapore and abroad. Our local Festival commissions explore contemporary issues and daringly bring to the spotlight lesser-known facets of Asian history and culture. Toy Factory will realise its innovative re-interpretation of a beloved Ming play. Checkpoint Theatre delves into the realities of the humanitarian aid industry, while Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen investigates some of Southeast Asia’s most shadowy historical figures.

On the international front, SIFA is delighted to welcome to our shores works by worldrenowned theatre directors Tadashi Suzuki and Simon McBurney, legendary musicians Ryuichi Sakamoto and Bill Frisell, and groundbreaking choreographers Gisèle Vienne and Sasha Waltz.

SIFA 2019 audiences can also expect to see a greater range of multidisciplinary work that defies easy classification, from pushing boundaries between theatre and dance in ST/LL by Japanese artist Shiro Takatani, to the use of virtual reality and binaural sound in Frogman by UK company curious directive.

SIFA will also present Silo Theatre’s Peter and the Wolf for families, as well as free outdoor performances in non-traditional venues for audiences of all ages.

Festival House will be back this year, as the epicentre of SIFA 2019. Here, audiences and artistes can extend their engagement with the Festival beyond the performance, as well as engage with each other, through a range of talks, workshops and master-classes to delve deeper into the themes and perspectives of each show.

SIFA 2019 would not have been possible without the support of CEO Sarah Martin; our three extraordinary producers – Junmin, Rydwan and Sara; and the phenomenal team at Arts House Limited. I would like to thank each of them for their dedication and passion.

Finally, I would like to warmly welcome you, our audience, to SIFA 2019. We look forward to taking you on this exciting journey with us.

Gaurav Kripalani Festival Director

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO What does the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) mean to you? A doorway to the world’s performances out there? An escape from the routine of everyday life?

An opportunity to indulge your curiosity? Or something more?

It would not be unusual for each of you to take away something different from the Festival.

When I look back at my years attending the Festival, what stands out in my memory are thrilling moments of discovering a work or artist that slowly built my own love for festival making.

In everything we do, SIFA brings audiences and artists on a personal journey, creating a shared experience across different touch-points with a wider community of art lovers, international and local artists.

Every edition of the Festival is also unique and contributes to the development of Singapore’s cultural landscape. 2018 was an encouraging year, with SIFA seeing heartening growth in the number of new – and especially – younger audiences. I believe this is a testament to the success of Festival Director Gaurav Kripalani’s balanced curatorial approach, emphasising diverse works with multiple levels of accessibility.

In 2019, the 42nd Singapore International Festival of Arts will continue to enrich the spectrum of audience experiences with a diversity of artistic genres and innovative platforms. Over 17 days, SIFA will showcase a spectrum of world-class performances by game-changing artists, alongside a range of distinctive multi-disciplinary works.

As one of the cultural peaks of Singapore’s arts calendar, the Festival will allow audiences to engage with a fascinating range of contemporary issues and create avenues for critical dialogue. The Arts House will once again transform into our Festival House, a unique gathering point to share ideas and viewpoints and to engage with the artists on a more intimate level.

Working behind the scenes at SIFA are many passionate individuals who have been critical to the Festival’s success over the years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has played their part in shaping SIFA, and to Gaurav for leading the Festival to new artistic heights.

I hope you leave this year with a fresh perspective of what the Festival means to you, and with wonderful memories of your own personal discoveries.

Sarah Martin CEO, Arts House Limited

WELCOME NOTE When the organisers of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) discovered I was planning to attend ST/LL, a theatre piece by my good friend and long-time collaborator Shiro Takatani which will also be presented at SIFA 2019, they immediately asked me to also perform.

At once, Shiro and I recognised this invitation for a new collaboration, an opportunity to explore my current sonic interests within Shiro’s world of ST/LL, for which I also contributed some music – in essence, a merging of both our present intentions.

Shiro’s visual work has been an inspiration and influence of mine for many years. It is such a pleasure to be able to improvise together and share our vision with all of you here. Thank you so much for joining us.

Photo by nss, (zakkubalan)

Ryuichi Sakamoto

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Elegant, nuanced and profoundly moving, Ryuichi Sakamoto – Fragments is an intimate concert featuring two maestros, iconic composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and Japanese multimedia artist, Shiro Takatani.

In this concert, Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto joins his friend and long-time collaborator Shiro Takatani, founder of Japanese art collective Dumb Type, to imagine a resplendent performance with a strong focus on improvisation and the sonority of everyday objects.

The performance draws from Sakamoto’s latest solo album, async, along with newer works. Described as “an imaginary soundtrack to a film Andrei Tarkovsky never finished”, async is one of Sakamoto’s most deeply personal albums following the maestro’s own battle with cancer, and an introspective reflection on the essential nature of life and death.

Sakamoto’s intense, masterful playing is heightened by Takatani’s cinematic visuals, full of poetic metaphors with its evocation of natural phenomena. The performance pulls the audience into singular, shared moments of Sakamoto’s sound creation and exploration.

Don’t miss this intimate, sublime performance by one of Asia’s most accomplished musicians, and a celebration of a creative friendship spanning decades.

Programme Partner:

Supported by:

MILESTONES 1952 Ryuichi Sakamoto is born in Tokyo.

1977 Attained an M.A. in Music Composition from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

1978 Formed Yellow Magic Orchestra, alongside Haruomi Hosono

and Yukihiro Takahashi. Released his first solo album,

Thousand Knives.

1983 Composed the original score and starred along David Bowie in Nagisa Oshima’s multi-award winning film, Merry Christmas,

Mr Lawrence.

1987 Won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for

The Last Emperor.

1992 Composed the opening theme for the Barcelona Olympics.

1999 The opera LIFE (with visual direction by Shiro Takatani) premiered with seven sold-out performances in Tokyo and Osaka.

2014 Diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer. After a year-long,

self-imposed work break committed to recovery, Sakamoto achieved full remission.

2015 Scored Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s award-winning film,

The Revenant.

Photo by nss, (zakkubalan)

2017 Sakamoto’s first solo album in eight years, async, was released, followed by async installation and his biographical documentary CODA directed by Stephen Nomura Schible.

BIOGRAPHIES RYUICHI SAKAMOTO As composer, performer, producer and environmentalist, few artists have as diverse a résumé as that of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto’s work has spanned vast musical territories, from pioneering electronic music as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra to crafting globally inspired rock albums, classical compositions, a stretch of minimal and ambient music collaborations, and over thirty film scores. His work has been recognised with accolades, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, a Grammy, the Order of the Cavaleiro Admissão from the government of Brazil, and the coveted Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the government of France.

Sakamoto has collaborated with the likes of Bernardo Bertolucci, Nam June Paik, and His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Since the 3/11 disaster in Japan, Sakamoto has been a strong advocate of support and aid for the victims of the earthquake, tsunami, and anthropogenic nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, launching charity organisations and the music event, NO NUKES. In responding to the consumerism of the 21st century, his politically conscious dynamism has cemented his reputation as a renaissance man.

In 2014, Sakamoto was forced to take the first major break of his career upon his diagnosis with throat cancer. He returned in just over a year, closing 2015 with two film scores: a collaborative score with Alva Noto for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning film The Revenant, and Yoji Yamada’s Nagasaki: Memories Of My Son. In 2017, besides releasing his 14th solo album async, Sakamoto also performed at the Park Avenue Armory; composed the score for Korean film The Fortress; and along with Shiro Takatani, he created the audiovisual installation, IS YOUR TIME, at the ICC in Tokyo; and released the documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA directed by Stephen Nomura Schible.

SHIRO TAKATANI Shiro Takatani is the founding member of the artist collective Dumb Type since 1984. Takatani has produced numerous performances and installation pieces using a variety of media, and continues to show work in theatres and museums around the world.

Aside from Dumb Type, Takatani began a parallel solo career in 1998.

In his solo activities, he created his own performance La Chambre Claire which premiered at the Theater der Welt, Germany in 2008, and CHROMA which premiered at the Biwako Hall Center for the Performing Arts Shiga in 2012. His first retrospective solo exhibition, Camera Lucida, was held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2013. His latest performance, ST/LL, premiered at Le Volcan, France in 2015 with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, was also presented at the National Theater & Concert Hall Taipei in 2017 and the New National Theatre Tokyo in 2018.

His solo exhibition, Dumb Type: Actions + Reflections, was held at Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2018, and will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2019.

TICKET HOLDER PRIVILEGES

FLASH YOUR SIFA 2019 TICKET

TO ENJOY SPECIAL DEALS AT OUR PARTNER OUTLETS Empress

Kuro Izakaya

1 Empress Place, #01-03, Asian Cilivilisation Museum, S179555

3 Temasek Boulevard, #01-604/605, Suntec City Tower 3, S038983

10% off dine-in ala carte food and drinks purchased at EMPRESS.

Enjoy 15% off total food bill.

Esplanade Mall

OTC Café

Esplanade – Theatre on the Bay, 8 Raffles Avenue, S039802 Beware of Pity, ST/LL, Körper and Ryuichi Sakamoto ticket holders are entitled up to 15% savings on dining and shopping at Esplanade Mall on the day of performance. Visit www. esplanade.com for details.

House Pour @ Festival House

The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane, S179429 Chill out and soak in the festival buzz at House Pour. Enjoy a glass of signature Housepour cocktail or a serving of ancho chicken tacos at only $4.20nett and all other items at 15% off.

In addition, complimentary premium ice cream in assorted flavours will be given out daily.

(Limited to the first 30 guests each day)

JW Marriott Singapore South Beach 30 Beach Road, S189763

Enjoy 25% off at Beach Road Kitchen and 15% at Akira Back.

100 Victoria Street, #03-01 National Library Building S188064 15% off food and beverages.

Privé ACM

1 Empress Place, #01-02 S179555 10% off dine-in ala carte food and drinks purchased at Privé ACM.

Paulaner Bräuhaus

9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-01, Millania Walk, S039596 SIFA 2019 ticket holders enjoy 20% off total bill when you dine in at Paulaner Bräuhaus.

The NCO Club

32 Beach Road, S189764 Enjoy 15% off dine-in ala carte food and beverage (Cool Cats, Madame Fan, Stags Room & Fish Pool)

Kith Café

Bras Basah: 51 Bras Basah Rd, #01-03A Manulife Centre, S189554 Marina Square: 6 Raffles Blvd, #02-49 S039594 Enjoy 10% off dine-in ala carte items purchased at KITH CAFÉ (Bras Basah, Marina Square).

Capital Zouk

3C River Valley Road The Cannery, #02-02, S179022 Enjoy free entry into Capital Zouk before midnight.

For more Festival deals, visit sifa.sg.

Unless otherwise stated, all promotions are valid till 2 June, Sunday. Not applicable with other promotions, discounts, vouchers and offers by credit or privilege cards. Ticket stubs presented must be in its original condition and e-tickets must be shown via electronic devices clearly. Management reserves the right to amend any promotional terms and conditions without prior notice. Merchants’ terms and conditions apply.

ABOUT SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS As Singapore’s annual pinnacle arts festival, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) presents captivating and diverse works across theatre, music, dance, film and visual arts. First launched as the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1977, the festival has gone through several evolutions and inspired generations of arts lovers and practitioners.

Today, the highly-anticipated festival is a high-point on Singapore’s arts and cultural calendar.

Under the helm of Festival Director Gaurav Kripalani from 2018–2020, SIFA continues its festival mission to champion the creation and presentation of Singaporean and international works.

ARTS HOUSE LIMITED BOARD Chairperson Christine Ong Members Chong Yuan Chien Deborah Ho Eduardo Ramos-Gómez Kelvin Ang Kenneth Kwok Lynette Pang Madeleine Lee Maniza Jumabhoy Mok Wei Wei Ong Chao Choon Ong Choon Fah Sarah Martin (Ex-Officio)

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS MANAGEMENT

Chief Executive Officer Sarah Martin Festival Director Gaurav Kripalani Chief Financial Officer Ng Soon Lee Head, Production Cindy Yeong Head, Marketing Jasmine Gan Assistant Head, Event Services Management Emma Izzabella Tagoe

PROGRAMMING Producers Sara Joan Fang Rydwan Anwar Ye Junmin Senior Manager Lisa Lip Manager Shridar Mani Assistant Manager Alicia Chong Festival Assistant Chong Xinyi

PRODUCTION

Production Manager Chan Silei Yo Shao Ann Production Co-ordinators Celestine Wong Melissa Chin Technical Co-ordinators Huang Xiangbin Ian Tan

Assistant Technical Co-ordinator Muhammed Muzzamier Bin Abu Bakar Production Assistants Chong Wee Nee Alexis Ho

MARKETING & TICKETING Senior Managers Elizabeth Wong Winnie Chan Managers Allison Lai Fiona Chua Senior Designers Hakim bin Rahim Md Firdaus bin Wari Executives Juliana Tan Shariffah Natasha Dinah Eriqah Azman Intern Chew Ying Ying

COMMUNICATIONS Manager Khairi Johann Jasmin Intern Jamie Buitelaar

PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Manager Norita Senin Executive Tan Yanru

EVENT SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Managers, Artist Logistics Carine Lee Syafiq Zulkepli Managers, Front-of-House Nura Osman Germaine Leow Manager, Back-of-House Hospitality Esther Goh Manager, Event Services Johnson Kee Manager, Special Projects and Operations Zalikha Mis’ari Executive, Front-of-House Kitty Kwan

FINANCE

Managers Vivian Gan Executives Aileen Ong Izyan Nooraini Bte Ramlee

HUMAN RESOURCE Manager Noraliza Ramli Senior Executive Elaine Neo

ADMINISTRATION

Centre Manager Lucas Chiew Executive Nor Limah Binte Ja’ffa

DON’T MISS

THESE OTHER PRODUCTIONS IN THE FESTIVAL SINGULAR SCREENS

Curated by Asian Film Archive 18 May - 2 Jun Screening Room, Festival House & Oldham Theatre

KÖRPER

by Sasha Waltz & Hans Peter Kuhn (Germany) 31 May & 1 Jun, Fri & Sat Esplanade Theatre

BILL FRISELL TRIO

featuring Rudy Royston & Thomas Morgan (USA) 29 May, Wed Victoria Theatre

Photo by Bernd Uhlig

Photo by Monica Frisell

CROWD

IMPULSE

by Gisèle Vienne (France)

Varsha (Singapore)

1 & 2 Jun, Sat & Sun Victoria Theatre

1 & 2 Jun, Sat & Sun Play Den, Festival House

Photo by Barbara Braun/MuTphoto

A DREAM UNDER THE SOUTHERN BOUGH: REVERIE

ST/LL

南柯一梦 之 如梦

by Shiro Takatani, Dumb Type (Japan)

by Toy Factory Productions Ltd (Singapore)

24 & 25 May, Fri & Sat Esplanade Theatre

31 May - 2 Jun, Fri - Sun Drama Centre Theatre Performed in Mandarin with English and Chinese surtitles.

Photo by Yoshikazu Inoue

FREE PROGRAMMES AND MORE FESTIVAL CLOSING CONCERT

DE RELAXERETTE

Arjan Kruidhof and Explore-the-North (The Netherlands)

with Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Joshua Tan

12 – 20 May & 22 May – 2 Jun, Daily, Various timings The Plaza, National Library Building

2 Jun, Sun, 6pm The Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage

FOR FULL FESTIVAL LINE-UP, VISIT SIFA.SG Organised By

Commissioned By

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