About Noriko
Noriko Hashimoto is a soprano and musical director based in Ottawa. Originally from Hyogo, Japan, she earned her bachelor’s degree from the Osaka College of Music before obtaining a master’s degree in Voice from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Highlights of her musical career include solo performances with choirs in Vienna and Prague in 2019, solo recitals in Ottawa in 2024 and 2025, and the premiere of "Echoes: Vibrations from Japan to Canada" at Ottawa Dance Directive in 2024 as a performer and a vocal composer. Most recently, Noriko appeared as a soloist at the Ottawa Pops Orchestra's "Ghibli Symphony II" concert in February 2026. Noriko is the chorus master and conductor of Melody of Japan Singers, an ensemble she founded in 2012. She is also honoured to act as the singer of national anthems for functions of the Embassy of Japan in Ottawa.
Photo by Sasa Gyoker
Program Notes
These nine pieces are a personal selection tracing the history of the operatic form, starting from its origins in 17th century Italy, through the classical and romantic periods into the 20th century.
Piano accompanist: Wakana Kitamura
(1)
“Lasciatemi morire!” from Arianna(1607-1608)
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi is often considered the first composer to realize fully the opera form. The score of Arianna is missing, but fortunately this aria was published separately. The story takes place in ancient Greece and concerns Arianna, princess of Crete, who aids Teseo, prince of Athens, in exchange for a promise of marriage. But he abandons her on the island of Naxos. This is her lament.
(2)
“Lascia ch ’io pianga” from Rinaldo (1711)
George Friderich Handel
A noted impresario, Handel wrote Rinaldo to introduce the Italian opera form to England. Rinaldo is set during the First Crusade and centres on the love of Rinaldo, a Christian knight, and Almirena, the daughter of the leader of the crusade. During the conflict, Almirena is kidnapped and brought to Jerusalem, where the Saracen king Argante falls in love with her. This aria is Almirena’s plea for freedom.
(3)
“Ach, ich Fuhl’s” from Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Zauberflöte was Mozart’s last opera, and he continued his break with convention in setting it to German instead of Italian. It is at once fun and broadly appealing, and a deeply serious philosophical work. The central characters Prince Tamino and Pamina must achieve enlightenment through various trials before they can be united. Wandering in the Temple of Ordeal under a vow of silence, Tamino plays the magic flute, and draws Pamina to him. But she misinterprets his silence for indifference and pours out her grief in this aria.
(4)
“Oh! Quante volte” from I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830)
Vincenzo Bellini
Drawing from the same tales that inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Bellini’s opera places more emphasis on the social context of the rivalry between the two political factions vying for supremacy in northern Italy. Giulietta is forced into an engagement with her cousin Tebaldo for alliance and dynastic reasons, but she is already in love with Romeo. Giulietta expresses her sadness in marrying Tebaldo and her love for Romeo in this aria.
(5)
“Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” from La Traviata (1853)
Giuseppe Verdi
In La Traviata, Verdi wanted to present a story from contemporary society, not mythology or history. Instead of a princess heroine, we have a courtesan in the Paris of his day. This song is a duet from early in the opera when the doomed lovers Alfredo and Violetta first meet at her salon. When her current lover refuses to offer a toast, Alfredo steps forward and the two sing this carefree celebration of drink and love.
(6)
“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” from Carmen (1875)
Georges Bizet
This is one of the most well-known arias in opera, sung by the gypsy Carmen to the naïve soldier Don José, who abandons his fiancée and his duties as an officer in a futile pursuit of Carmen. Sung early in the opera, she gives him fair warning of the dangers of love. Carmen is often seen as a bridge to the realistic themes and styles of later composers like Puccini.
(7)
“O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi (1918)
Giacomo Puccini
This one-act comic opera is set in Dante’s Florence of the 13th century. Arriviste Gianni Schicchi’s daughter Lauretta is in love with Rinuccio from the established Donati family. An expected inheritance will allow Rinuccio to marry whom he likes — but the will of his uncle Buoso holds a surprise that requires the underhand ingenuity of Gianni Schicchi to fix. In this aria, Lauretta pleads with her father to help her and Rinuccio marry.
(8)
“Summertime” from Porgy and Bess (1935)
George Gershwin
Set in 1920s South Carolina, Gershwin’s opera — both celebrated and controversial for its depiction of African Americans — explores the struggles of Blacks in the Jim Crow south through the story of the two title characters. “Summertime,” sung by a mother to her baby, opens the opera and sets both the stylistic and thematic tone. It is reprised several times throughout the opera as a kind of commentary on the action.
(9)
“Sayonara” from Yūzuru (Twilight Crane, 1952)
Ikuma Dan
Ikuma Dan’s opera is based on a retelling of the famous Japanese folktale “The Crane Wife” and invokes folk music. Many years before, Yohyō, a simple farmer, saved the life of a crane. Now happily married, he is unaware that his loving wife Tsu is in fact the crane in human form, and that his contented life is due to her secretly weaving her feathers into beautiful cloths for sale. Prompted by his covetous neighbours, he peeks at her during her weaving. The spell is broken, and she must leave. This is her parting song, recalling their life together.
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