Four Nights of Dream
Moto Osada
About this work:
Four Nights of Dream was commissioned by the Vadstena Academy with support from the Japan Foundation, and was premiered at Vadstena Castle in Vadstena, Sweden on July 19th, 2008 during the Vadstena Opera Festival. The premiere run was enormously successful; nearly all of its 11 performances were sold out and the opera drew immense praise from the Swedish press.
The libretto is based on the Japanese author Soseki Natsume’s Ten Nights of Dream, published in 1908. Ten Nights of Dream consists of ten short stories, which the author relates in the form of dreams. Four stories were selected from the work and made into an opera in four scenes. The stories have no relation to one another; they are distinct dreams. These stories deal with issues that lurk in the depths of our subconsciousness such as desire, anxiety, fear, and ego, universal themes of humanity.
The composer Moto Osada writes of the opera, "The illusionary nature of the simple and imaginative stories found in Four Nights of Dream are particularly well suited to the medium of opera. Just as the settings and the characters are surreal, so is opera, by nature, with its sung rather than spoken dialogue. Indeed, at the heart of the story’s development is the music itself, a characteristic that distinguishes it from other media such as television and film. This opera ultimately aims to provide such an outlet for these stories, exploiting the unique dimension found at the intersection of drama and music; I intended to create a work, reflective of our time, that carries on the great tradition of combining these two art forms, through which my own musical language and compositional tools, together with my knowledge of classical Japanese musical drama, may serve the stories.”
Four Nights of Dream was also underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation and funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center.
Year composed: 2008
Duration: 01:30:40
Ensemble type: Opera/Theater:Chamber Opera, Two or More Singers
Instrumentation: 1 Piccolo, 1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 English Horn, 1 Clarinet, 1 Bass Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Contrabassoon, 1 Horn in F, 1 Percussion (General), 1 Piano, 2 Violin, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Double bass, ,1 Soprano soloist(s), ,1 Mezzo-Soprano soloist(s), ,1 Tenor soloist(s), ,2 Baritone soloist(s), ,1 Bass soloist(s)
Instrumentation notes: Flute doubling Piccolo; Oboe doubling English Horn; Clarinet in Bb doubling Bass Clarinet;
Bassoon doubling Contrabassoon
Percussion (One player):
Triangle, Brake Drum (or Anvil), Bell Tree, Suspended Cymbal, Tam-tam,
Slapstick (Whip), Guiro, Temple Blocks, Sandpaper Blocks, Snare Drum, Tenor Drum, Large Tom-tom,
Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Chimes (Tubular bells)
Also requires a dancer.