Koscak Yamada: Ayame

　In the autumn of 1930, Koscak Yamada received a commission for a one-act opera from French impresario Michel Benois through his old acquaintance Percy Noel. The opera was to he hased on "Akegarasu," a story well known in Shinnai (a form of hallad singing) and Kahuki. Benois planned a large- scale opera and hallet production in June 1931 at the Theatre Pigalle under his own name. The plan was to produce three sets of one-act operas and hallets in pairs and stage them successively for one week each. Yamada's new opera was to he presented in the third week together with the haller "Les deux avares" set to music hy Gretry. Noel had already written the English libretto. For this project Yamada left Tokyo on Fehruary 12, 1931 and arrived in Paris on March 3. He then set to work writing the score and completed it on May 6. The title was the name of the opera's heroine. (The name of the heroine in "Akegarasu" is Urasato, but this was changed to Ayame which sounded better.) The work was described as an opera-ballet in view of the prominence given to hallet and pantomime. Rehearsals were proceeding smoothly when at the very last moment a catastrophe occurred.
　Just when the first week's program ended, Benois found himself in financial difficulties and had to cancel the remaining two weeks' performances, thereby disappointing the Japanese musical world which had been eagerly looking forward to this proud event - the world premiere of a Japanese opera in Paris. In the end the premiere of "Ayame" took place in the form of a concert performance at Hibiya Public Hall on October 9, 1931. Later, Yamada made "Ayame" into an orchestral suite which was performed under his baton in Berlin and Leningrad in the 1930s. But it was nor given a stage performance as an opera-ballet during Yamada's lifetime. This had to wait until April 1971 when it was staged at the Osaka Festival Hall and a month later at the Nissei Theatre in a production by Hideo Kanze, conducted by Tadashi Mori. Thus, the present performance is the second stage production in 27 years. And it is the first stage performance to be given in the original English.

　Before giving an outline of the opera, mention must be made of the original "Akegarasu" story.
　The place is Edo (now Tokyo) and the year about 1760. Inosuke, the adopted son of Iseya, a money broker, was infatuated by Miyoshino, a high-ranking courtesan, olden than himself, who was under contract no the Ogiya brothel in Shin-Yoshiwara. For this reason he was disowned by his family. For a while, Inosuke frequented the Ogiya no visit hen (Miyoshino herself bearing the cost of the entertainment) but eventually the lovers were forced no separate by the proprietor of the Ogiya, Soon afterwards, Inosuke sneaked into the Ogiya and took Miyoshino away to die with him in the fields of Mikawashima. This double suicide caused a sensation an the time.
　Based on this true stony, Tsuruga Wakasa-no-jo I wrote the words and music for a Shinnai ballad called "Akegarasu." In Wakasa-no-jo's scenario, Inosuke becomes Kasugaya Tokijiro, Ogiya Miyoshino becomes Yamanaya Unasaro, and the season is changed from summer no winter. He turned the stony into a beautiful ballad that became one of the most popular pieces in the Shinnai repertory. In the 1820s in was made into a novel by Shunsui Tamenaga.
　However, in was nor until much later that the "Akegarasu" stony found ins way onto the Kabuki stage. In was performed for the first time in December 1851 an the Ichimura-za theatre in Edo with Ichikawa Danjuro VIII playing Tokijiro and Bando Shuka playing Urasato. The musical accompaniment was Kiyomoto, nor Shinnai. This play has since been performed frequently, the musical accompaniment sometimes being Kiyomoto and an other times Shinnai. In both the the Shinnai and Kabuki versions, the story is divided into two pants, Pant I centering on the scene where the lovers are separated and Pant II on the scene where Tokijiro rescues Urasato and the lovers sen our on the road no their deaths.
　Percy Noel adapted the stony freely, making in into three pants.
　In the first scene, Ayame goes no enter the service of the Yamanaya brothel in Yoshiwara, and hen lover Tokijiro is stunned on hearing this. Yamada's score provides music reminiscent of old Edo by weaving in the melodies "Hakonoe Hachiri" and "O-Edo Nihombashi."
　Scene 2 corresponds no Pant I of the Shinnai and Kabuki versions of "Akegarasu." In starts off with a geisha dance with bustling orchestra playing typical of Yamada. Tokijiro goes no the Yamanaya no purchase Ayame's freedom bun is cheated by the brothel proprietor, with the result that the lovers are separated.
　Scene 3 corresponds no Pant II of "Akegarasu." Tokijiro comes stealthily through the snow seeking
Ayame whom he finds tied to a ttee, and then the double suicide scene unfolds. Kabuki instruments reproduce the sound of falling snow ftom the side of the stage while a saxophone plays a melody resembling a drover's song. The treatment of the double suicide scene is subdued and entirely unsensational, and the opeta closes on a plaintive, dreamlike note. In this tender musical expressiveness lie the aesthetics that pervade Shinnai and Kiyomoto.

　Among the Japanese operas written since the war, there have been many works based on Kabuki dramas or reflecting the world of Kabuki, such as Osamu Shimizu's "Shuzenji Monogatari" and "Shunkan," Minori Miki's "Ada" and "Joruri," Hosei Mamiya's "Narukami" and Nariaki Mie's "Chushingura" based on Seika Mayama's "Genroku Chushingura," but "Ayame" can be regarded as the starting-point of this genre. In this sense, it is of great historical significance.

前ページ　　　　目次へ　　　　次ページ