Monday, February 11, 2013

"Carmen" by Kanda Kyoko


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZIU_8flGIw

Here is Kanda Kyoko!  She is my favorite talk artist.  Whenever she appears at Nigiwaiza in Yokohama, I go see her.  Her talk art is called Koudan 講談.  It is different from Rakugo 落語.
In Koudan, artists talk before a low table and use a spatula (I don't know what to call that) to make sounds for rhythm.

"Carmen" is the story. Enjoy!

4 comments:

Vincent said...

In English you would call her a raconteur:

The narrator of an anecdote or story, esp. a person particularly skilled in this role.

A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.

Synonyms
narrator - storyteller


keiko amano said...

Vincent,

Thank you.

I like raconteur. It sounds French.

At first I wrote this on FB and added the following comment.

It's a story of love triangle. The stage is Serbia, Spain. At the Tabaco factory, many men talk about women and evaluate them. Carmen appears strutting with a red rose. A corporal named Don Jose sees Carmen. Carmen throws the rose toward Jose. A soldier comes over and report there was a murder in the factory. Jose order men to gather and go to the factory. Carmen was the murderer. Carmen goes to jail. On the way to the jail, Carmen sings a song, "Please, please let me escape, if you do, I'll be yours." She winks at Don Jose, and Jose gives Carmen his weapon. Carmen picks it up and hit all the soldiers and escape. Later, Don Jose finds Carmen singing in a town. Jose ask her to marry. She refuses but accept going to a trip with him. Later on, Jose sees Carmen with other man. Jose asks Carmen to return to him, but she refuses. With his passion reaching the max, Jose stabs Carmen. Ahhhhhh!

ZACL said...

Carmen is also a wonderful opera by Bizet, there are traditional and modern productions. Whatever kind of production it is, the music soars and withe the right voices, the story is magnetically told.

It seems like your storyteller makes her music, her beat, with her stick. if it is flat, it could be a spatula, no reason why it should not be.

We sometimes visit the storytelling centre in Edinburgh. A good storyteller can bring so much to life in the story told, and give aspects of understanding of, say, an old play, that we may have missed.

The term 'raconteur' is French, Keiko.

keiko amano said...

ZACL,

Her talk was a summary of the opera "Carmen" by Bizet. Have you noticed similar melodies?

Anyway, Koudan is one form of traditional story telling arts, and she is trying to save it from disappearing.