This year’s featured composer in UoT’s New Music Festival is Toshio Hosokawa.  Last night saw performances of two of his one act operas in Walter Hall in productions by filmmaker Paramita Nath, with the composer in the hall.  The first was a monodrama setting of Poe’s The Raven featuring Kristina Szabó and a student ensemble conducted by Gregory Oh.  It’s an interesting piece.  Hosokawa’s sound world combines the European avant-garde with Japanese elements so it’s unlike anything I’ve heard from a North American composer.  It’s dramatic and atmospheric and works really well with fevered nature of Poe’s text.  He also writes well for the voice with a variety of demands from whispering, through speech to full on singing.  All of this coped with admirably by Szabó who, as ever, seemed perfectly at home with whatever the composer threw at her.

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