Composer Toshio Hosokawa. Libretto from Hannah Dübgen based on the Nō play of the same name by Motokiyo Zeami.
In German. With German and English subtitels. New Production.
The dreamlike opera Matsukaze, an adaptation of a 15th century Japanese Noh-play by Master Zeami, tells the tragic story of two sisters, the salt collectors Matsukaze and Murasame, who fell in love with the nobleman Yukihira. One day, he had left for the city and never returned. The sisters have been waiting for him ever since. Even after their deaths, they remain prisoners of their longing. As eternal spirits, they are bound to a beach with only a single pine tree, continuing to collect salt. Hundreds of years later, a monk seems to offer them a path to redemption/salvation. Will they finally be able to let go?
Creating contemporary Noh-theater and thus enabling new ways of staging opera – those were Toshio Hosokawa's aims in composing Matsukaze. He describes Noh-theater as the “drama of soul healing” – a theme particularly pronounced in the subgenre mugen nō, which is notable for blending dream or illusion with reality and to which Matsukaze belongs. These aspects are taken up by the directing team Lotte van den Berg and Tobias Staab. In their approach to the opera, they pose questions about attachment and the redemption of souls: What do we hold on to? What can set us free? And do we even want that? With a diverse ensemble of singers and performers, they explore the facets of dependency. Working with internationally renowned artist Alicja Kwade, who designed the stage, and sound artist Mieko Suzuki, who created the sound scape for the first part of the evening, they invite the audience to fall under the spell of this opera-installation.
