Péter Eötvös: Lady Sarashina A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

The 70-year-old Péter Eötvös was always attracted to theatricals including traditional concerts and even film music. He was only smitten by the world of opera, however, after the Lyon debut of his Three Sisters based on the Chekov play in 1998. After Three Sisters Eötvös, who follows the practice of 17–18th century opera composers in that he mainly works to commission, immediately set about writing As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams, based on the diary of an 11th century Japanese lady. The personal observations of the women known as Lady Sarashina are exciting not only for their historical significance but also for their literary value. As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams has been performed all over the world (it was played in 2001 at the Budapest Spring Festival, directed by András Almási-Tóth and conducted by Gergely Vajda), yet it did not take root in opera houses. So when the Lyon Opera House requested Eötvös to create a new work in 2007, together with co-writer and librettist Mária Mezei, he fashioned a genuine opera out of the original, dividing the story of this perceptive women into nine scenes. This is how Lady Sarashina came about, a work that up to now had been impossible to hear in Hungary although it has garnered laurels both in France and Poland.