Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Bright Sheng
Dream of the Red Chamber (2016)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
Commissioned by San Francisco Opera
- 2(2pic).2(ca).2(bcl).2(cbn)/4331/timp.3perc/hp/Qin/str
- Female Chorus, Dancers, extras
- 2S, 3Mz, A, T, male actor
- 2 hr 30 min
- David Henry Hwang and Bright Sheng
- English
Programme Note
Cast
BAO YU/DIVINE STONE: Lyric Tenor
DAI YU/CRIMSON PEARL FLOWER: Lyric Coloratura Soprano
BAO CHAI: Light Mezzo-soprano
MME. WANG: Full Lyric Mezzo-soprano
GRANNY JIA : Alto
PRINCESS JIA: Full Lyric Soprano
AUNT XUE: Mezzo-soprano
THE MONK: Male Actor
MAIDS, PRINCESS JIA’S ENTOURAGE: Female Chorus, Dancers, Extras
IMPERIAL SOLDIERS, EUNUCHS: Male Chorus, Dancers, Extras
Synopsis
The Dream of the Red Chamber, a masterpiece of Chinese fiction, is a detailed, episodic record of the lives of the members of the Jia Clan, whose good fortune is assured when one of its daughters becomes an imperial concubine, and then declines after her death. The story centers on a love triangle consisting of the main character, Bao Yu, his beautiful cousin Dai Yu, and his future wife, another beautiful cousin named Bao Chai. Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang have adapted Cao Xue Qin’s epic 18th-century Qing Dynasty novel with a focus on eight central characters to tell the tale of the illustrious Jia Clan and traces the Jias' fall from the height of their prestige. Often considered a semi-autobiographical novel, Sheng and Hwang frame the tale with a Prologue and Epilogue led by The Monk, who may be the author himself.
Scores
Reviews
That image — poised, serene, accompanied by enchanting music — is just one of many stunning stage pictures created in Bright Sheng’s opera, which made its world premiere Saturday in a new San Francisco Opera production at the War Memorial Opera House…
Sheng’s score evokes the Chinese setting in swaths of orchestral sound: percussive outbursts, chattering woodwinds and string glissandi. Dai Yu’s alluring Act I aria is accompanied by the qin (a Chinese zither). Yet the composer employs a predominantly Western palette; one hears echoes of Bartok and Stravinsky in the opera’s forceful orchestral passages, arias and ensembles.
…Red Chamber is a gold mine of opportunities for vocal display, all of which were capitalized on by the Opera’s excellent cast. Dai Yu’s aria to begin Act 2, to take just one example, is one of those impeccable set pieces, elegant in both detail and formal design, that young sopranos will soon start adding to their audition lists, and Jo delivered it with consummate eloquence.
