On November 21-24, 2024, the Minnesota University Opera Theatre premieres the newly created chamber version of Dream of the Red Chamber. This version of Dream of the Red Chamber was commissioned by the Chinese Heritage Foundation Friends for the Regents of the University of Minnesota, School of Music Opera Theatre.
Composed by Bright Sheng with a libretto co-written with David Henry Hwang, whose original version of the opera was premiered by San Francisco Opera in 2016 and revived in 2022, the new production is staged by artistic director David Walsh and conducted by Professor Mark Russell Smith. A large pool of talent is involved with shaping this production, including Oscar-winning artistic director Tim Yip, celebrated classical Chinese dancer Zhongmei Li, and Taoist philosopher and choreographer AI Huang.
Sheng's newly reduced version is now for a chamber orchestra of 35 players while maintaining the original cast size and musical content.
Dream of the Red Chamber is based on the 18th-century classic Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It tells the story of the rise and fall of the wealthy Jia family during the Qing Dynasty, focusing on the tragic love story of young Jia Baoyu. Baoyu is torn between his passionate love for his sickly cousin Lin Daiyu and his arranged marriage to the more practical Xue Baochai, while the family's fortunes decline due to corruption and mismanagement, ultimately leading to their downfall.
…the score snaps into focus in a series of tautly constructed scenes that reveal the canniness of Sheng’s compositional strategy — in particular, his skill in crafting an operatic language that is a hybrid of Chinese and Western traditions.
…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.
Joshua Kosman, SF Gate
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