The things I liked about Solaris, the book, is not at all because it is science fiction,
but because of this human psychology and also the alienness which is coming within you,
which is in the story.
In a way it's like a soul search or searching yourself, but then at the same time you meet
this monster or whatever, the alienness which is created within you for Kelvin, this main
character's case would be his wife who killed herself ten years ago, who's appearing in
this Solaris station.
Both of it's out of Earth, so therefore the story starts quite suddenly.
He arrives at the station and then off you go, the strangeness starts from there, and
then you think the act one is opening scene is strange, it's not, it gets stranger and
stranger.
In opera the Kelvin sort of pretend that nothing is strange, but then in a Solaris station
starts behaving not like Harry, he remembers, and becomes less and less even human.
It's hardly a normal story, but I guess we can get there very quick because we all know
this is not Earth, so let's get to the core of this subject.
Any composition, I think you have to be obsessed with things you write.
If you're not obsessed enough with it, there's something wrong with your material.
I don't think you should base on a story or topic which you're not obsessed with.
Then how can you have a relationship day and night for over, every day for a year and a
half, it's just not possible.
So therefore I think that because of the Solaris was the one and only topic at that time I
was really attracted to, well actually Saburo Tessigawara who is the director and the librettist
of this opera.
I mean he contacted me, of course, and then he asked me again what topic would you like
to do and I immediately said Solaris because of the reason I already told you, and he said
me too.
For this Solaris is the only composition I composed without getting stuck.
So from beginning to end it was very, I wouldn't say easy, but it was really natural.
I really knew exactly what the next scene is and I really know what the next scene is,
what kind of orchestra should be playing and then the lines and melodies for the singers
and so on and so on.
So it was very smooth and I remember the last bar I wrote of Solaris, I mean as much as
I was happy after I worked on a year and a half, I finally finished, but I was quite
sad that I had to leave.
When I was writing Solaris I didn't think about anything apart from the things I'm writing.
Composing is part of my life as in it's like a breathing, since when I'm eight I think.
Every day I composed, I mean from when I was eight or nine I was just playing on the piano,
but every single day I composed.
For me it's composing, it's so much fun and it's so joyful things to do, I mean really
it's the most joyful things to do in life.
I feel that I can really be free when I'm composing, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing.
I always think that people should always try to learn things from everywhere and then therefore
I had this stance that I wanted to learn everything from every experience.
Can you imagine, music is something, it's an incredible art and also the music is something
you can't, how can I say, you can't avoid, meaning that if you don't want to see something
you shut your eyes, you can close your ears but the music can really still go in there,
which could be very strong, very dangerous even.
So therefore I don't understand from my point of view why would anyone who is a creator
of music would think power, culture or country.
So I mean also at the same time as I often say, for me composing music is creating utopia
where I want to live in.
If the rate is so terrible I would like to create something beautiful, something just
fall for a minute.
