Neo Konjaku Monatali (The Ghosts of Edo)

Opera in One Act and Three Scenes (1 hour and 15 minutes)

Libretto by Masumi Yoshida

Music by Jean-Thierry Boisseau

Instrumentation :

Soprano and Bass Soloists

· Five Female Singers

· Piano (Moyuru Maeda)

· Saxophone (Paul Wehage)

Electronics

Japan lives with the ghosts of its dead. They are part of everyday life, and one must take into account this daily presence. This reality is not a folk custom, but rather a reflection of a society which is completely permeated with a dense fabric of spirits which are completely plausible and realistic to those who live within this society. There is not the poetic conception that one can see in the oral tradition and literature of the West (Grimm, Pérault, Leprince de Beaumont, Madame d’Aulnoy, Andersen etc). The idea of the Fantastic in Japan has nothing to do with the irrationality of the West which, if it is part of our collective unconscious and is part of the world of Childhood, has never really been considered in the West as a tangible reality. The Japanese, in contrast, believe completely in the existence of these spirits, ghosts and demons which belong to another world which is not necessarily the « other world » in Western Monotheistic cultures.

The Japanese live with these spirits and do not see them only as a means of scaring children. This work seeks not only to tell a story which reflects the Japanese way of thought but also to combine this way of seeing the world with elements of Western Musical Culture. We would hope that through this juxtaposition of universal cultural artifacts that we would come to terms with our own way of living with our personal ghosts. The text is adapted from traditional Japanese folktales (Tales of the Misty Moon Through the Rain),but the librettist introduces elements of a contemporary story, and elements of contemporary History itself through his personal experience in Japan and Europe, respecting the traditional principals of narration The music is contemporary, but written in a style which is understandable by all ears...

A Note From the Librettist

In distancing one’s self (in the spatial sense of the word), one is able to better understand one’s own country and culture. Having lived in the West for many years, I am constantly drawn to an appreciate of the cultural ties which have unified at certain periods Japan and various European countries. Living in France, I am particularly interested in the ties which have existed and exist between Japan and France, especially those of the end of the last century and those present today in the visual arts and music. I sincerely hope that by participating in the creation of this work with artists who have the same principals as myself that we will find a new meeting place established by a principal of parity.

I decided to write this libretto using traditional stories from the Middle Ages (11th-12th centuries) during the beginning of the Samurai period. This era in Japan, much like the current period, was the mark of a dispersion of political power. These tales speak, in the tradition of much literature of the Middle Ages, of Love and Death. They treat this subject matter in a way that is typically Japanese, integrating naturally in the narrative all sorts of extraordinary beings, spirits, demons, ghosts, as naturally and normally as the present day Japanese perceive these apparitions in their daily lives.

Theses stories are an excellent means of understanding our Japanese way of thinking. I believe that my personal perspective of a Japanese Man of the 20th century living in the West will allow me to bring these two poles of my experience together in the re-telling of these tales.

Masumi YOSHIDA

A Note From the Composer

In place of a scientific knowledge of Japan, I have a real affection for this country. My work as a musician is also colored by this affection. I am not trying to make a japonaiserie or to integrate into my musical discourse ethno-musicological elements, but instead to allow in the same work a cohabitation of my own occidental musical universe with my vision of the Japanese poetic universe as I perceive it through my explorations of this rich and varied culture.

This work comes from something that I can only describe as a perception of something which comes from a sensation rather than a rational perception. More concretely, my musical procedure for this work works towards a recreation of elements of traditional Japanese music and which uses traditional Japanese melodies as a starting point. In other words, I am striving towards a meeting of elements from different cultures which, coming together to form a new alloy, would be created in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.

Jean-Thierry Boisseau