The Judith of Shimoda - Bregenzer Festspiele (2023) - Die Judith von Shimoda - Bregenzer Festspiele (2023)

Description

World Premiere.

A US consul in Japan, in whose house a geisha serves to appease the disaffected American.

What initially sounds like a modification of the plot of Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly is actually a play that Bertolt Brecht prepared in 1940 as an adaptation of a Japanese text. A performance version that was only published posthumously in 1997 is now the basis for the new opera by Argentine composer Fabián Panisello.

Written in 1929 by Yamamoto Yūzō, the original tells the story of the first American consul, who arrives in Shimoda, Japan in 1856 and complains that he cannot get native servants. When his talks about a planned trade agreement are still difficult, he threatens to have the city shelled. Finally, the geisha Okichi agrees to serve the consul to save her hometown. Despite her marriage to a Japanese man, she is ostracized for her dealings with the foreigner, becomes addicted to alcohol and becomes a geisha again. Brecht saw the potential for "a Japanese Judith" in this play, meaning "a story of a great heroic deed told to the end." By referring to the biblical figure of Judith, Brecht emphasized society's responsibility for Okichi's development.

More information is available on the official website of the festival.