"Dream of the Red Chamber," which went on from the San Francisco Opera to success at the 2017 Hong Kong Arts Festival and then on a tour of China, was the last major contribution of former S.F. Opera General Director David Gockley, before retiring. (Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera)
Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
As San Francisco Opera is reprising its 2016 world premiere of "Dream of the Red Chamber," June 14–July 3, Bright Sheng's musical treatment of a classic Chinese novel is produced by a pan-Pacific cast and crew — Taiwanese, Chinese, Chinese Americans, Korean, Singaporean.
Sung in English with English and Chinese supertitles, the opera, which went on from the War Memorial to success at the 2017 Hong Kong Arts Festival and then on a tour of China, was the last major contribution of former S.F. Opera General Director David Gockley, before retiring. He has commissioned 43 new operas during his long career, eight for the San Francisco company he started running in 2006.
The source is an enormous work, forerunner of endless TV series. Cao Xueqin wrote the first 80 chapters of "Dream of the Red Chamber," first published in 1790, and then collaborators added 40 more chapters later. The book, the source of films and TV series, is so important in China that the word "Redology" was coined for its study.
The most prominent Redologist was Zhou Ruchang, who spent seven decades studying the work. Initially supported by Mao Tse-tung, who claimed to have read "Red Chamber" five times. Zhou — who died in 2012 at age 94 — ended up in prison during the Cultural Revolution anyway.
The novel has been compared to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" with its tragic romance between Bao Yu (sung by Korean tenor Konu Kim) and Dai Yu (Chinese soprano Meigui Zhang), against the family scheme to have him marry the wealthy Bao Chai (Chinese mezzo Hongni Wu). Important roles are taken by Korean mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim, Taiwanese soprano Karen Chia-ling Ho; the conductor is Singaporean Darrell Ang. Stage director Stan Lai and designer Tim Yip are both Chinese Americans.
The librettist is David Henry Hwang, whose first play — at age 22 — was the 1979 "FOB," but there is nothing "fresh off the boat" about the Los Angeles-born author who lives in New York. Chinese and Asian themes dominate in his large oeuvre of drama and opera, though he readily admits that “my Chinese is fairly nonexistent.”