PAN-ASIAN MUSIC FESTIVAL: Der Jasager by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht
Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Der Jasager (The Yea-sayer) is an educational piece written in Germany in 1930 promoting individual sacrifice for the good of the whole community. The libretto is based on Taniko, a centuries-old Japanese Noh drama: A teacher leads an expedition to the mountains. With him is a boy whose mother is ill. The boy has insisted on going on the dangerous trek in order to obtain medicine for his mother. On the way, the boy himself falls ill and is asked whether he will agree to be sacrificed in accordance with custom. He answers yes and is hurled from the mountain by his fellow students. The Stanford Opera Workshop’s production of Der Jasager is set in an ant colony. By way of a prelude and postlude, recent Stanford graduates Marc Evans and Andrew Linford have set Haiku and Japanese folk texts which juxtapose the human and ant behaviors. This performance features Stanford Opera Workshop singers and chamber orchestra, Happy Dog Duo, Stanford Taiko, Stanford Gu-Zheng, and the Chorus of the German International School of Silicon Valley, with the support of music director Marie-Louise Catsalis, stage director Nova Jiménez and dramaturg Melissa Kagen.
Free and open to all on campus