New National Theatre, Tokyo

The New National Theatre, Tokyo, which opened in 1997, is Japan’s only national theatre dedicated to the modern performing arts of opera, ballet, dance and drama. Its Opera Palace is the country’s principal home for grand opera. The opera company presents a carefully curated season of the international repertoire — Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Mozart and Strauss — in productions that have won it a reputation for musical seriousness and high standards of staging, performed by Japanese and international soloists. As the focal point of operatic life in Japan, the theatre has done much to deepen the country’s engagement with opera and to develop home-grown singing and production talent.