HANJO, scene IV by Toshio Hosokawa

HANJO (2004), scene IV
Music and libretto by Toshio Hosokawa

Presented by Project [BLANK] and Twisted Heart Puppetworks
San Diego, CA | October 3rd, 2020

This film was produced for Catapult Opera’s ACCELERATE competition. The musical selection was provided by the competition panel, and the team had three weeks to plan and produce their submission.

All puppetry was designed, built, performed, and filmed by Tania Yager and Twisted Heart Puppetworks. Many of the twenty-four handmade puppets were made from recycled materials.

The musical arrangement of the score was made by Brendan Nguyen by amplifying, recording, and assembling sounds from his home piano. All sonic elements of this orchestration are derived exclusively from the piano.

In accordance with the competition’s instructions to maintain best social distancing practices, all musical and visual components were developed by each artist in their own home, recorded individually, and assembled to create the final product.

Leslie Ann Leytham | mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Nussman | baritone
Brendan Nguyen | piano and arrangement
Tania Yager | design and puppetry
Joe Cantrell | audio engineering, mixing, and video editing

-------------

LIBRETTO

JITSUKO
At the time I made a vow to myself never to let her be stolen from me by that faithless man.

YOSHIO
Since then, for the past year and a half, she’s been in your hands, I take it.

JITSUKO
I’ll thank you not to adopt that tone, exactly as if you had left one of your belongings in my keeping.

YOSHIO
Then you won’t let me see her… In other words, her happiness is not what you desire.

JITSUKO
I desire exactly what she desires, and she has no desire whatever for happiness.

YOSHIO
Then, just supposing I came here in order to make her unhappy again…

JITSUKO
Her unhappiness is beautiful and perfect. No one can intrude.

YOSHIO
Then there is no need to be so afraid of letting me see her.

JITSUKO
Afraid? Yes, I value my good fortune.

YOSHIO
At last you’ve come out with the truth.

JITSUKO
You have no comprehension of what my good fortune is. I am a woman who has never been loved by anyone, even when I was a child. And that is not the worst. If by a remote chance someone were to love me, I have come to think that I would probably hate him in return. I can’t allow any man to love me… love me... That was why I began my life of dreaming —dreaming of making a captive of someone who was very deeply in love, but not with me. What do you think of that?

YOSHIO
Is that what your good fortune involves?

JITSUKO
Yes.

YOSHIO
People who aren’t loved think up horrible things, don’t they?

JITSUKO
All love is horrible, and there are no rules.

YOSHIO
One thing clear to me is that you and I are enemies. Well, then, what do you give her? Is it hope? By making a decoy of me? That would seem to be all. I think that I can give her the world.

JITSUKO
You lie. All you can do is to steal the world from her.

YOSHIO
That may be, for all I care. You can’t tell unless you’ve tried.

JITSUKO
I won’t let her be tried any further. She is a flawless, inviolable gem. A deranged gem. There must be someone more suitable for worthless rubble like you.