„Susanne Elmark, who plays the unwittingly irritating Claudia, sings with clarity and warmth. Bejun Mehta infuses his lines with affectingly bittersweet melancholy.“ (Financial Times)
“The 2011 Tôhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear plant incident unleashed by it, have forced me again to consider the power of nature and human arrogance. There’s a scene in the opera where the people go to the seashore with lanterns and give the lights back to the sea. This ritual illustrates our belief that the human soul comes from the sea and returns to it after death. But if this sea isn’t clean any more, where can we return to? I was in Fukushima and saw the deserted towns and cities. I’ll never forget it.” (Toshio Hosokawa)
“The 2011 Tôhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear plant incident unleashed by it, have forced me again to consider the power of nature and human arrogance. There’s a scene in the opera where the people go to the seashore with lanterns and give the lights back to the sea. This ritual illustrates our belief that the human soul comes from the sea and returns to it after death. But if this sea isn’t clean any more, where can we return to? I was in Fukushima and saw the deserted towns and cities. I’ll never forget it.” (Toshio Hosokawa)
