Hosokawa: Stilles Meer

Under the baton of Kent Nagano, the Philharmoniker Hamburg performed the eagerly awaited world premiere of the opera Stilles Meer by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa, starring superb singers as the world famous countertenor Bejun Mehta. Stilles Meer transfers a prominent theme of the Japanese dance theatre, Sumidagawa, into the setting of Fukushima, picturing the grief of a German woman who lost her boy and her husband during the Tsunami that attacked Fukushima in March 2011 and her unrelievable sorrow not being able to accept that reality. “The orchestra plays [for Kent Nagano] with delicate precision. Susanne Elmark sings with clarity and warmth. Bejun Mehta infuses his lines with affectingly bittersweet melancholy. ” (Financial Times).