Das Jagdgewehr
Thomas Larcher
Composer Thomas Larcher. Libretto by Friederike Gösweiner based on the novella by Yasushi Inoue (1949). German version based on the translation by Oscar Benl.
Chamber opera in 3 acts (2018)
With three madrigals from Claudio MonteverdiPremiere of the Opernstudio
recommended from 16 years
In German language. With German surtitles. New Production.
A poet has published a poem about a lonesome hunter, who he recently saw in the mountains. Josuke Misugi, who has recognised himself as the mountain hunter, subsequently contacts him. He sends the poet three letters, in which three women that are important for him tell of the long relationship he had with his sister-in-law, Saiko. A relationship of which nobody but they knew, or at least they thought so. Now we learn, however, that his wife Midori has long since known, and in her letter tells of the consequences. In her farewell letter, Saiko herself struggles with her long years of guilty conscience. And Shoko, Saiko’s daughter, also never wants to see her uncle again, as she has learnt of their secret from her mother’s diary. A man between two women – five views of the same facts. Yasushi Inoue’s 1949 novel could be set anywhere, and at any time. Modern people plot against each other, four lives turn out to be lies. At the end, one person is dead, and a successful businessman has become a lonely hunter in the mountains. For this chamber opera, which celebrated its world premiere at the Bregenz Festival in 2018, Austrian composer Thomas Larcher has been developing his sounds from the germ cells of music – a rhythm, an interval, a scale and singing, sometimes almost entirely silent, sometimes exploring the limits of the human voice.
