Unsuk Chin introduces her opera Dark Side of the Moon
The Hamburg State Opera presents the world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s new opera Dark Side of the Moon on 18 May. Kent Nagano is on the rostrum for the five performances and the staging is by the theatre collective Dead Centre.
For her second opera, Die dunkle Seite des Mondes (Dark Side of the Moon), Unsuk Chin has turned to a Faust-themed subject, combining quantum physics, psychoanalysis and diabolic forces. Kent Nagano, who has championed Chin’s music across 25 years, conducts a cast including Thomas Lehman, Bo Skovhus and Siobhan Stagg, with the production staged by the Irish-based theatre collective Dead Centre. This interview with Unsuk Chin offers an introduction to the two-act opera, exploring the source material and genesis of the composition.
What do you want to tell us about the libretto and the music for Dark Side of the Moon?
First of all, I'm describing a human tragedy, and a real tragedy at that. It's not describing how a person is abandoned by another, but offers a situation where you are abandoned by your visions and your soul and your ideals, everything that makes you human.
Secondly, just as in Goethe's Faust, it is about fundamental questions of humanity – where do we come from, where are we going – questions that can’t be answered conclusively, so humanity will never be able to answer them. If I compare myself to Wolfgang Pauli, I am neither a genius nor do I want to decipher the secret of the universe, but even in my modest framework I have my ideals and I fight for them and I am desperate because I know that I will never achieve these ideals. But as Kieron says in the final song in the opera, even if you don't get the answer, it's worth asking all the questions and trying to get the answer because a lot of beautiful things reveal themselves along the way, and you shouldn't close your eyes to that.
Thirdly, it's about how you define evil. I have always interpreted the dialogues between Mephisto and Faust in Goethe as Faust talking to himself, and in this opera, too, it becomes clear that good and evil can be directly connected and are interdependent.
What is the relationship between the librettist Unsuk Chin and the composer Unsuk Chin?
Many people may wonder why a composer would write the libretto herself. Of course it's a risk. But I came up with the material and had been sifting through the whole idea in my head since 2017. It also benefits the working process that you work in parallel and can seamlessly cross from one medium to the other. It was difficult at the very beginning because the processes of composing and writing are so different, but there was a point where both things came together, which was an interesting experience. Ultimately, this is nothing new, as I have often been a lyricist for my other vocal works. Literature and writing were always important in my family (much more so than music). I wrote a lot in my youth and later also worked as a music journalist, for example.
What made you decide to adopt the encounter between Pauli/Kieron and Jung/Astaroth as the subject of a work for the musical theatre?
I'm fascinated by the natural sciences, especially physics, of course. I'm really a layperson, but thinking about it, the whole cultural-historical spectrum, embracing great scientific personalities and their lives, is extremely interesting. I came across Wolfgang Pauli when I read Werner Heisenberg's book The Part and the Whole, and I was immediately captivated by his personality and his impulsive character. Then I read the book 137: Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession by Arthur I. Miller, which described very well why Pauli went to Jung and what their relationship was like. Miller himself wrote that this story has a certain similarity to the Faust material. I was immediately attracted to this idea of making an opera because the character of Pauli was extremely engaging - being an artist among physicists, his obsession with dreams, his extreme personality, his escapades and his division into a day and a night life. So some biographical facts and anecdotes form the building blocks for this opera. The character of Kieron is my idea of what Pauli was or could have been like, even if it is of course fiction.
Incidentally, the material is directly related to the city of Hamburg, but I only realised this in the course of the work process. Wolfgang Pauli lived and taught in Hamburg between 1922 and 1928. In 1925, 100 years ago, he conceived the so-called Pauli Principle in Hamburg, for which he was finally awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945. He describes his time in Hamburg as the happiest time of his life. I came to Hamburg in 1985, which was my first stop outside Korea, but it was one of the most difficult times of my life. This opera, which will be premiered in 2025, closes a circle for me.
As a composer, how do you plan and conceptualise such a large-scale work as an opera?
For me, there is no difference whether a piece lasts three minutes or three hours, because the structural challenges are very similar. The difference between an opera and abstract music is simply that in an opera the story is already there and this then creates a structure, so to speak.
What lines of tradition do you follow as a composer?
I see myself as part of an international musical culture. I also try to find my own roots as a person, and my roots are firmly anchored in my music.
Text passages are sung, while others are spoken like a melodrama. How do you decide which ‘narrative style’ to use?
That depends very much on the content of the texts. Some are best sung and others should definitely be spoken. It also depends on the situation. For example, if Kieron is screaming in extreme excitement, it would not adequately reflect the situation if he were to reproduce well-formed melodic lines.
Are there overt references to the world of physics in the compositional style, within the music itself?
The model for the opera was Wolfgang Pauli, a physicist, but I didn't want to make an opera only about physics or psychology. Opera is opera, a fantastical story, fiction. Basically, if Kieron were a writer or a philosopher striving for higher things, that would offer similar possibilities. On the other hand, in some of the texts I have used phenomena from physics, which I understand in lay terms, as a model to express human feelings.
Is there something that you yourself associate with the character of Kieron?
Subconsciously there is always a certain percentage of yourself in the figures that an artist creates, otherwise you wouldn't feel attracted to them.
Interview by Angela Beuerle, Dramaturg at the Staatsoper Hamburg, 2025
> Visit the Hamburg State Opera website
> Further information on Work: Die dunkle Seite des Mondes
Moon image: Wikimedia Commons; Unsuk Chin image: Bonsook Koo