The late classical composer Teizo Matsumura, American film director Martin Scorsese, and playwright/director Keiko Miyata may seem an unlikely trio, but they share a reverence for "Silence," the 1966 novel by Shusaku Endo.
Matsumura (1929-2007) spent more than 13 years composing an opera based on the novel, and Scorsese will direct a film version later this year. For Miyata, "Silence" will marry her personal and artistic interests as she directs her first opera for the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT) — a new production of Matsumura's "Silence."
"When Shusako Endo was still alive, members of the theatrical company I was working with produced some of his works, but unfortunately I was not directly involved in the stagings," Miyata tells The Japan Times. She is currently artistic director in the play division at NNTT, but she started her career at the Seinenza Theater Company as a writer/director in 1980. "Either because reading the novel 'Silence' had such a big effect on me, or because I harbored a fascination for Japan's traditional resistance toward foreign cultures, I ended up reading all of Endo's works based on this time period when Christianity was persecuted in Japan."