Scene from the English language opera Dream of the Red Chamber Photo: Courtesy of Armstrong Music & Arts-ZEXI
The star-studded English language opera that enchanted San Francisco around this time last year, Dream of the Red Chamber, kicked off its Chinese mainland premiere in Beijing on Friday, returning to the city where the story was first written and published.
Based on the 18th century epic of the same name written by Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) writer Cao Xueqin, the two-act opera was supported by the Minnesota-based Chinese Heritage Foundation and created by a group of prominent Chinese and Chinese-American artists, including MacArthur Fellow Bright Sheng as composer, Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang as co-librettist along with Sheng, Stan Lai as director and Oscar winner Tim Yip as costume and stage designer.
Imported by the Hong Kong-based Armstrong Music & Arts and the Poly Theater to the Chinese mainland, the show will tour to Changsha and Wuhan, the capital cities of Central China's Hunan and Hubei provinces, over the next two weeks following Beijing.
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