Stilles Meer by Toshio Hosokawa

          March 11th, 2011 became the most unforgettable day in my life. I was in the middle of the last class of the day at my middle school when the longest and the widest quake hit the entire Japan. The terror and uncertainty that I felt on that day still remains vividly after 13 years passed since the incident. Even though my area was relatively far from Tohoku area where the largest quake and tsunami hit followed by the release of the nuclear radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plants, the way of my life has changed since the earthquake. When I learned Toshio Hosokawa, one of Japan’s leading contemporary composers, wrote an opera, Stilles Meer, which was based on this event , I immediately felt the similar terror and uncertainty I felt when I experienced the earthquake 13 years ago. It is rare to watch an opera that was based on your major life event in which you were heavily involved, and with some hesitation, I decided to watch the opera and attempted to understand the implication of the work as well as the meaning of the use of opera as a creative medium.

          One of the most remarkable elements of Stilles Meer is the intersection of western and eastern cultures. The opera is distinct from other works with eastern cultural implication, such as Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, which merely takes the Japanese characters and cultural references into the Western art form of opera. Though the opera was commissioned by the Hamburg State Opera in 2015, the majority of the creative team is Japanese or artists whose background is Japanese. Stilles Meer takes beyond the traditional operatic expectation, and the creative team, including Hosokawa and Oriza Hirata, who is the original librettist and stage director, explores their own expression to portray the essence of this tragic incident and complicated emotional states of the characters. My main purpose in this paper is to examine several types of dualism that exist in Stilles Meer and how they are portrayed through dramatic and musical force. At the end, I aim to assess whether “opera” is the right word to describe Stilles Meer as there are so many intersections of cultures and theatrical forms.

          Even though there have been more operas since 1970 that shifted their primary focus of the production from having a clear plot to more abstract expressions in visual and sonic experiences on stage, the plot plays a crucial role in the opera to understand the dualism from multiple angles in Stilles Meer. The work is a one act opera divided into five scenes. The story focuses on the three characters: Claudia, a German ballet teacher who has been living in Japan for years, lost her son Max and her second husband Takashi in the Fukushima disaster. She seems to accept the death of Takashi, however, she is unable to deal with the death of her son. Her ex-husband and the father of Max, Stephan traveled to Japan from Germany to convince Claudia that Max is now dead, and she should come back to Germany with him. Haruko, Takashi’s sister, also begs Claudia to accept the reality and explains the circumstance to Stephan. The opera is set on Ohigan day, in which people commemorate and honor ancestors in the Buddhist tradition by going to the cemetery. As part of the ceremony, Villagers gather to float the lanterns out to the sea, which is shown in the opening of the opera. Claudia refuses to return to Germany with Stephan and sings a verse from the Noh theater piece, called Sumidagawa, believing that Max is still alive and will return from fishing. Sumidagawa is the piece about the mad mother who searches for her lost child who appears briefly as a ghost before his mother could embrace the child. Haruko suggested performing the Sumidagawa as Claudia might be able to see the reality of her son’s loss through portraying what happens at the end in the piece. The entire cast starts singing the sutra “namu amida butsu” to call the Buddha. Her ballet student Miyuki appears at the end of the sutra instead of Max. Claudia is yet unable to accept Max’s death and suggests that everyone will go to their own home as the opera closes.

          Hosokawa mentions in his interview for Karsten Witt Musik Management that there are two literary templates behind the opera that he and Hirata came up with. Kanze Motomasa’s 15th century Noh “madwoman” play Sumidagawa is not only a crucial part of the plot line, the story of Sumidagawa follows the same narrative trajectory as Claudia’s tragic circumstance: the mother is unable to accept son’s death. The global narrative line is parallel to each other between Stilles Meer and Sumidagawa, in addition to the fact that Haruko believes the dancing and performing Sumidagawa could be the healing solution to realize the reality for Claudia as she is also a dancer and adores the work. Moreover, Hosokawa and Hirata utilize multiple elements of Noh theater in Stilles Meer from the musical aspects and stage structure. First of all, Hosokawa gave Stephan the vocal lines that are associated with Noh style singing, which is featured by the repeated notes with longer rhythmic values. The orchestra also supports to create the Noh atmosphere as the violin makes the clustered chords with tremolo which could be the imitation of sho, a traditional pipe mouth organ, and the flutes produce the breathy sharp attack which could be associated with Ryuteki, a traditional flute from gagaku ensemble. Additionally, the staging has also some strong connections with the Noh theater. One of the highlights of staging in Stilles Meer is the diagonal bridge that seems to symbolize the way between the reality and afterlife. In the opera, Claudia mainly enters and leaves with this bridge as she is being lost between the two worlds. In Noh theater, there is also a path that connects the backstage and the main stage area, called Hashigakari, which dancers use for entrances and exits. Another literary template Hosokawa and Hirata bring into Stilles Meer is Ogai Mori’s 1890 short novel Maihime (The Dancing Girl). It tells the story of the doomed love affair of a Japanese man in Berlin which is based on Ogai’s own personal experiences in Germany. Interestingly, in Stilles Meer, it is the other way around: a German man comes to Japan to find his lover. In Maihime, the German heroine is also a ballet dancer as Claudia in Stilles Meer.

          There is some hesitation to consider Stilles Meer as a traditional notion of “opera” as there are so many angles to see the dualism which is clearly presented in this work. Although Hosokawa calls this work “opera,” I suspect that he was not limiting his creative output to the genre and reaching beyond the form of opera to achieve the alternative goal through Stilles Meer. The clearest example of the dualism in this work is a cultural aspect incorporating the non-fictional context in Japan and two main German characters, Claudia and Stephan. The conductor of the premiere of the opera, Kent Nagano talks about the universality of the subject matter in Stilles Meer and Hosokawa’s musical and aesthetic language in the interview. He addresses that Hosokawa’s score to this opera does not sound Western nor Japanese, but it speaks to broader audiences. As Nagano mentions, the general concepts in this opera, such as the powerfulness of nature, the motherhood, and the idea of acceptance might be spoken to any viewers in a similar way through Hosokawa’s score, but the fact Hirata incorporates the story of Maihime by Ogai, and the opera was premiered in Hamburg could not deny the existence of two cultural aspects in the opera. In the plot, Haruko plays an important role in suggesting the dualism between the two cultures. One of her roles in the opera is to explain some of the Japanese cultural components and situations to Stephan, such as Ohigan, the Noh theater piece, Sumidagawa, and what is currently happening in Fukushima due to the radioactive substances. It does not make it clear whether or not Stephan fully understands these cultural references, however, as the only Japanese character performed by Japanese mezzo-soprano (at least in the premiere), Haruko convincingly demonstrates the essence of Japanese cultural background in the plot. Though the opera does not particularly distinguish German cultural roots,  it is clear that Claudia and Stephan are foreigners as they both are also ballet dancers. It is interesting to note that both Claudia and Stephan seem to adapt Japanese customs on the stage through bowing to the villagers and joining to chant the Buddhist prayer later in the opera. Especially, Claudia has been living in the community long enough, the villagers seem to accept her as one of the community members since she is a ballet dancers for the local children.

          Another dualism in the opera is the juxtaposition of nature and technology. The opera portrays the terror of nature through the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The primary root of Hosokawa’s music is deeply inspired by the creation of harmony with nature. In this opera, “water” was a central focus in Hosokawa’s score. There are many moments when different forms of the sound of water are heard from dripping water to the ocean wave. In his other orchestral work, Circulating Ocean (2005), Hosokawa explores the idea of cycle of life in music: the ocean water turns into water vapor, then clouds, rain and storms, and falls back to earth, ultimately finding its way back to the ocean. In Stilles Meer, as the water is contaminated by the radioactive substances from the nuclear plants, Hosokawa argues that this cycle could not be achieved, and human technology to reply on the nuclear energy plant destroys nature in Fukushima. Moreover, Stilles Meer is probably the first opera in the history which includes a talking robot. Since the opera takes place in the coastline close to the perimeter of the exclusion zone surrounding “Fukushima 1,” the robot plays an important role addressing whether or not it is a safe zone from the radioactive substances. In fact, the very first words that are heard in this opera is by this robot addressing it is a safe zone in Japanese. The stage design also suggests the dualism between nature and technology. The large circular board on the stage represents the inside of the nuclear plants, and underneath the board is the blue ground that represents the ocean. The long lights that are hang in the background of the stage could be viewed as the beautiful starts that can be seen in the coastal area of Fukushima, but they are also the representations of the fuel rods in the nuclear plants. 

          Finally, I would like to address the dualism between opera and Noh theater. This might be one of the most crucial reasons why I tend to hesitant to call Stilles Meer an “opera” because there is both elements of two distinct theater forms in this work. First of all, there is a juxtaposition of two different dance forms presented in this opera. As Claudia is a ballet dancer, there is a clear implication of the European ballet. There is also a short scene when Miyuki appears towards the end of opera where she dances for her teacher Claudia. Hosokawa addresses in his interview that European ballets tries to work against gravity whereas Japanese dance is more earthy, motionless, and the dancers are required to move significantly slowly. As the Noh dancers’ motion is generally slow, the singers were also asked to imitate the physical motion of these dancers. As I discussed above, there is musical elements from Noh theater that were incorporated in this opera by Hosokawa. One major element Hosokawa masterfully projects is the use of silence and stillness. In this 90-minute opera, the plot moves slowly allowing some silences for the characters and audiences to reflect their complex emotion that they experience. 

          Stilles Meer is the work I felt the personal connection, not only because of cultural relevance to my identity living between two cultures of west and east, but also it incorporates the real life event I experienced 13 years ago. It was challenging for me to conceive this work as “opera” since I experienced intersections of so many different perspectives and art forms. The dualism that exists in this opera contributes to the sensitivity of the plot and uniqueness of the work that speaks to the universal ideas. Benjamin Britten used the same Noh piece, Sumidagawa which was used in Stilles Meer, called Curlew River. I would like to conclude with Hosokawa’s words about his work in relation to Britten’s work: “My reason for making music is that I need healing, spiritual salvation… Benjamin Britten used the Sumidagawa subject matter to compose Curlew River. I think it is a very good opera but too Christian. I would like to make a Buddhist opera that is more about acceptance. Noh is the drama of the process of healing the soul and that is what my opera should also be.”

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