Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Music by Bright Sheng
Based on an 4,000-year-old Chinese folktale about the creation of night and day, The Silver River tells a story of a forbidden love between a Goddess Weaver and a mortal man.
The Silver River was commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, where it premiered in 1997, directed by Lisa Peterson. An expanded version opened at the Spoleto Festival in 2002, directed by Ong Keng Sen, in a coproduction with the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City.