Page 586 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

In Kanze Motomasa’s drama dating from the early 15th century, a noblewoman driven
mad by the abduction of her 12-year-old son, takes the ferry across the Sumida River –
the river flowing through present-day Toyko – to search for the boy, only to learn of his
death and burial at a place where strangers have built a memorial in his honour.

On the Snape Maltings stage, Xanthe Gresham-Knight, representing the spirit of the
river, told the story first, thus obviating the need for surtitles as the drama itself –
intoned in the ancient Japanese text – was then played out. With the characters of the
Madwoman and the Ferryman in traditional garb, behind them the nohkan flautist and
two drummers and the jiutai chorus kneeling at the side, the slow ritualistic pace, words
and their inflections within a narrow range of pitches iterated with disciplined fervour,
was mesmerising though, being so different, never exactly easy. But the universality of
grief needs no translation and the madwoman’s final consoling vision of her son was
clearly felt.

Retaining the essence of this narrative, Britten and his librettist William Plomer
nevertheless transposed its Buddhist element to a Christian one with the aura of a
mystery play, their conceit being that a brotherhood of monks are enacting an ancient