| Four
Nights of Dream (2008) Duration:
90
minutes An
opera
in four
scenes by Moto Osada Libretto
by
Moto Osada, after Ten Nights of Dream by Soseki Natsume
(English)
Vadstena
Castle, Vadstena, Sweden Director: Nils
Spangenberg Conductor:
David Björkman Company: The
Vadstena Academy Flute (doubling Piccolo), Oboe (doubling English Horn), Clarinet (doubling Bass Clarinet), Bassoon (doubling Contrabassoon), Horn, Percussion, Piano, 2 Violins, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass
Time and Place Any
time, anywhere General
Concept The
libretto is based on the Japanese author Soseki Natsume's Ten Nights
of
Dream,
published in
1908. Ten Nights
of
Dream consists of ten
short stories, which the author relates in the form of dreams. Four
stories were selected from the work, and made into an opera in
four
scenes. The stories have no relation to one another; they are distinct
dreams. These
stories deal with issues that lurk in the depths of our
subconsciousness such
as desire, anxiety, fear, and ego, universal themes of humanity. Synopsis SCENE 1:
The First Night (Characters:
Samurai, Off-stage Female Choruses I & II ) Monodrama
with commentaries by Off-stage Female Choruses. The Samurai is
engaged in
the Zen Buddhist practice of meditation. His goal is to solve a problem
presented to him by the priest, and thus attain enlightenment (satori). Struggling to do so,
he recalls
how the priest mocked him, saying that if he cannot attain
enlightenment he is
not a real samurai. Now the Samurai is determined to attain
enlightenment by
the time the clock strikes the hour, and then return to the priest to
exchange
his enlightenment for the priest's head. If he cannot attain
enlightenment
within the hour, he vows to kill himself, for a samurai should not live
beyond
humiliation. The problem he is presented with is the meaning of
Nothingness. He
struggles to find the answer, and is consumed with rage. Swarmed with
resentment against his inability to attain enlightenment, he is about
to lose
his mind. As Nothingness remains out of his reach, the clock finally
strikes
the hour. SCENE
2:
The Second Night (Characters:
Female Narrator, Shotaro, Woman, Ken-san) A
comical scene with the characteristics of an intermezzo. Ken-san
and the
Female Narrator introduce Shotaro, the protagonist of the scene.
Shotaro is a
nice, handsome, but also lazy young man who sits all day by the
entrance of the
fruit shop staring at the faces of women passing by. The Woman appears.
Shotaro
is very impressed by her looks. She buys the largest fruit basket and
complains
how heavy it is. Shotaro offers to carry it to her home. Ken-san and
the Female
Narrator continue the story by relating the long journey Shotaro takes
with the
Woman. They arrive at a vast field. After crossing the field, they come
to the
lip of a sheer precipice. The Woman simply tells Shotaro to jump down.
He
politely declines to do so. The Woman says, "If you do not jump, you
will be
licked by a pig." Shotaro finds pigs abominable, but he still refuses
to jump.
Immediately a pig comes grunting up. Shotaro reluctantly hits the pig
on the
snout with a walking stick. The pig flops down and vanishes over the
precipice.
As Shotaro heaves a sigh of relief, another pig appears. Once again he
uses his
walking stick. This pig also tumbles down into the chasm. Then yet
another pig
appears. This action is repeated many times and is described by the
quartet of
Shotaro, the Woman, Ken-san, and the Female Narrator. Shotaro, being
exhausted
by hitting snout after snout, is finally licked by a pig and collapses.
Ken-san
comments that too much looking at women is never a good thing. SCENE
3:
The Third Night (Characters:
Father, Off-stage Male Choruses I (Son), II & III, Dancer) NOTE:
Essentially there are only two characters in this scene: the Father and
the
Son. The Son, carried on the Father's back throughout the scene, is a
doll. The
Son's lines are sung by Male Chorus I. The Dancer, present on the stage
throughout the scene, symbolizes the Son's mysterious character. The
Father
is walking with his son on his back. The Son is six-years old and
blind. The
Father and the Son (Male Chorus I) exchange a few words. The Father is
taken
aback by the fact that the Son's voice is that of an adult (sung by
Male Chorus
I) and that he possesses an uncanny ability to foresee things. The
Father
thinks that the boy might bring him bad fortune and decides to abandon
him
somewhere. The Son asks if he is too heavy for the Father to carry. The
Father
says no, to which the Son replies that he soon will be. The Son
observes that
being blind is inconvenient. The Father tries to appease him, but the
Son
replies that people tend to slight the blind, and even his parent
slights him.
The Father hurries on thinking he will soon find a place to throw his
hump
away. The Son says to the Father, "It was an evening like this." The
Father
asks what the Son is talking about, but the Son claims that the Father
should
know very well. The Father has a vague feeling that he remembers such
an
evening. He wants to get rid of the Son right away for he is afraid of
discovering what the whole thing is about. Suddenly the Son stops the
Father
and says, "Just here!" The Father nods in spite of himself. The Son
continues, "It
was exactly one hundred years ago that you murdered me at the root of
this
cedar tree." Upon this announcement, the Dancer starts to dance in a
fast tempo
accompanied by the Male Choruses, creating an atmosphere not unlike a
ghost
dance in the Japanese Noh drama. SCENE
4:
The Fourth Night (Characters: Man,
Female
Narrator) NOTE:
There are two characters in this scene: a man and a woman. The woman is
played
by the Female Narrator, who is not participating in the stage action.
She
alters between the woman's lines and narrating. The Female Narrator describes the dying woman and the man who sits beside her. Just when she is about to die, the woman (the Female Narrator) tells the Man, "When I am dead, dig a hole with a large shining shell of mother-of-pearl. Mark my grave with a fragment of star and wait for me by the graveside." She says if he can wait for a hundred years, she will come back to see him again. He says he will wait and then describes her last moment. In the following aria, he describes how he waits for her by her graveside, watching the sun rise and set innumerable times. He starts to wonder if the woman has lied to him. The Female Narrator joins in and describes how, from the grave, a stem starts to grow, and a slender bud opens its petals soft and full. The duet climaxes as they sing about how the man kisses the white lily and realizes that the hundredth year has come.
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