Director's Note

This opera is performed under big constraints to prevent Corona virus infection. The ensemble is going to follow the guidelines issued by relevant authorities to minimize the risk of infection: keep two-meter social distance and wear a mask in some singing scenes. We are also going to perform in a way that the soloists would not be in close contact as much as possible. We would also refrain from coming to the audience seats.

We frequently receive a question why "Madame Chrysanthème" has never beenperformed. One big reason seemed to be that "Madame Chrysanthème" was overshadowed by more famous opera, Puccini's "Madama Butterfly". "Madama Butterfly" is one of the famous and widely played operas in the world. What we must understand is that "Madama Butterfly" failed in its first performance and was rewritten several times before becoming a popular opera. In this sense, we can say "Madame Chrysanthème" still has a lot of potential as it has been performed only in French speaking places and never been rewritten.

One big feature of "Madame Chrysanthème" is that the characters actually existed. Okiku-san as a main character, Pierre, Yves, and Kangoro as a marriage agent. Back then, all the marriage agents were called Kangoro; Goro in "Madama Butterfly" is also a short version of Kangoro. However, some parts were modified from Loti's novel to fit it into an opera storyline. That is the part where Pierre and Okiku-san fall in love. Messager, the composer, was a director in the Paris Opéra-Comique and composed many operettas. Songs and scripts of "Madame Chrysanthème" were written in French, but we cannot recreate it because there is no record. I hope, someday we can perform this opera in original French. Perhaps, our predecessors viewed it invaluable to leave it for later generations. Still, we thought we needed to create the opera in a way that you would feel "this is such a good opera that needs to be continuously performed in the future!". Performing in Japanese language was also a big decision. We also modified the festival scene, replacing it from Yasaka Shrine's summer festival to Suwa Shrine's Nagasaki Kunchi. In fact, Loti visited Nagasaki Kunchi festival during his stay in Nagasaki 15 years later.

We visited Nagasaki last year with support from the Agency of Cultural Affairs. To our surprise, the original Tsukimi Chaya, where Loti, Okiku-san, and Yves visited, still existed in Suwa Shrine proximity. There, we ate a Botamochi and imgagined Loti and Okiku- san were eating together. That was when I realized that this opera is not merely a 130-year- old French opera. It is also posing a question on universality of human being. In this performance, Mr. Tsunao Yamai, Konparu Style Noh Master, is going to perform Noh. The idea is that Noh can bring a chemical reaction of East-West relationship over a century since Meiji era to express universality of human mind. Today, "Madame Chrysanthème" is going to be performed first time in a century. It is you here today who are going to determine that this opera will be played in Japan and the world, or be buried again in history.