Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Part Two. Fog and Uncertainty

Here’s what the handout says about  “LIFE–fluid, invisible, inaudible…” currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo:

The exhibition features a special collaboration with Fujiko Nakaya, who is known for her “Fog Sculpture” (1970), which covered the Pepsi Pavilion at the Osaka EXPO’70 with artificial fog created by water, and who has been conducting fog projects around the world. In the outdoor Sunken Terrace, fog, light, and sound weave a dreamlike symphony eliciting feelings of love, respect, and awe for nature.

I must say that this installation left a strong impression on me for a variety of reasons.  First, the use of artificial fog with the sun shining through it made for a real striking kind of beauty. The fog and sun together, almost like two opposing elements, made me think of what it would be like if I could see actually see thunder, alongside of lightning.

In anticipation of my performance with a bass later this year in New York, as I studied this installation I couldn’t help but think about the aria I’m currently preparing from Verdi’s Macbeth called “Come dal ciel precipita” in which Banquo and his son Fleance are on the moors in Scotland at night, in a similar kind of mist, which makes everything not only very mysterious, but also uncertain in terms of what one is seen and not seen. The music itself suggests people taking one or two steps, then having to stop to make sure that it is safe to take the next step, as one would do in a fog.

I have to admit that when I play this aria I think about scenes in a movie where music is used to build up the suspense of the moment, and a person has to take a little time to look through a mist to actually see what is happening.  

Looking at the fog as part of this installation and the mystery it created did a lot to help me decide how I am going to interpret this aria at the piano.  I can’t wait until I begin my rehearsals with the singer!