In the process Cao (who wrote the first 80 chapters) and Gao E (who added 40 more) offer an artfully nuanced look at domestic life in 18 th century China placed within a philosophical and spiritual context of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.Īnd yet despite instances of compelling music, Sheng’s opera proves a curious failure of nerve. It has 40 major characters and 10 times as many secondary ones chronicling the downfall of a great family during the Qing Dynasty against the background of political upheaval. For American audiences, it offers the opportunity to discover one of the great epic novels of world literature, first published in 1791 and sometimes called the Chinese “War and Peace.” For the Chinese, the Cao Xueqin novel is widely known thanks in good part to a much-repeated 36-part Chinese television serial from 1987, along with a more recent remake.Ĭao’s “Red Chamber” is colossal. This is a project with all the hallmarks of a landmark Chinese opera. The latest, and one of the most ambitious, is Bright Sheng’s “Dream of the Red Chamber,” which was given its world premiere Saturday night by San Francisco Opera. A new operatic genre that merges cultural traditions is slowly being created. Now prominent, they swim in a musical ocean that, to paraphrase Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, has no East or West. in the wake of China’s Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s, a number of promising young Chinese composers immigrated to the U.S. But China does not yet have enough of its own notable opera to fill them.Īmerica can help. China has more architecturally notable new ones, such as the late architect Zaha Hadid’s spectacular Guangzhou Opera House, than any other country. China needs it too.Ĭhina has some 29 opera houses.
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