Kent Nagano is scheduling seven premieres plus three contemporary
works in only four concerts for the Berkeley Symphony's next season.
Thursday night, in an interview before the orchestra's closing concert
in Zellerbach Hall (a typical Nagano program: Zdzislaw Wysocki [?!], the
flute version of a Boulez work, with the incredible Cecile Daroux, and the
original, interminable version of Bruckner's Third Symphony), he spoke in
superlatives about one of next year's featured composers, Ichiro Nodaira.
And then, almost by accident, Nagano let an intriguing cat out of the bag,
about an opera Nodaira is writing. The story goes back many years and it
gets rather complicated, but here it is:
Toru Takemitsu and Nagano worked together well for a long time, when
the composer ran into the problem "plaguing opera since the days of
Monteverdi"- the difficulty of finding a good, workable libretto. After
searching for a subject and a librettist for more than a couple of years,
Nagano recalled, Takemitsu told him about "a profound dream with a subject
so vivid and moving that he felt certain this was to be the opera he had
searched for."
Still with Opera de Lyon, Nagano immediately accepted the plan for that
company, and suggested possible writers for the project, including Barry
Gifford, a Bay Area resident like Nagano. Gifford has written several
major film scripts, including "Lost Highway" and "Wild at Heart" for David
Lynch. Elmore Leonard characterized his writing by saying that "Gifford
knows his noir."
When Nagano brought Takemitsu and Gifford together, "they clicked,"
and developed the libretto over the span of five years. In December,
1995, Takemitsu called Nagano to say the work is complete "in his head,"
and he left for a retreat to commit the opera to paper at his country home.
Ten weeks later, Takemitsu died, leaving a mystery about the fate of the
opera; it is unknown what - if anything - of it exists on paper.
When the Takemitsu family later approached Nagano to help organize a
memorial event on the 10th anniversary of his death, in 2006, the conductor
was reminded of the Japanese custom of honoring the dead by completing
their dreams, plans, projects.
Nagano turned to Nodaira, a student and fervent supporter of Takemitsu, to
ask him to set an opera on Gifford's libretto. Nodaira, who is recording
the complete piano works of Takemitsu, committed to the project.
With the working title of "Madrugada," the opera will be presented within
three years, if a sponsoring consortium can be put together.
Janos Gereben/SF
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