NEW YORK -- In the Japan Society's latest cross-cultural experiment, the subtlety and spirituality of Japanese noh drama was played off the stirring pace of Kurt Weill's opera.
Presented here last week, Weill's opera "Der Jasager" (performed in its English translation, "The Consenter") was staged back-to-back with Komparu Zenchiku's 15th-century play "Taniko (The Valley Rite)," performed by the Nohgakuza troupe and led by Hideo Kanze, Rokuro Umewaka and Kan Hosho, a Living National Treasure.
Co-written by Bertolt Brecht and his assistant Elisabeth Hauptmann, "Der Jasager" is based on a 1921 translation of "Taniko," which failed to include the second act. As a result, the plot and characterization of both works runs parallel for the first half, aside from one major difference: Brecht secularized his version so that the pilgrimage becomes an arduous journey, the yamabushi (mountain priest) leader becomes a schoolteacher and his disciples become students.