Ainadamar: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 2025 / December 11, 2024 by David Hwang

Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Music by Osvaldo Golijov

Ainadamar tells the story of playwright Federico García Lorca and his producer and muse, Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu, including Lorca’s murder by the Falange. The male Lorca is played by a woman as a “trousers role,” adding another dimension to the exploration of sexuality and gender.

Ainadamar premiered at Tanglewood Music Center in 2003, directed by Chay Yew. A revised version was later presented at the Santa Fe Opera in 2005, directed by Peter Sellars, and has been performed extensively throughout the world. Its recording on Deutsche Grammophone won two 2006 Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

A new production of Ainadamar opened in April, 2023, which ran at the Metropolitan Opera during their 2024-25 season.

Next Production:

April 26 - May 18, 2025

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

For more information on Ainadamar in Los Angeles

The Monkey King 美猴王 World premiere at SF Opera in 2025 / December 11, 2024 by David Hwang

The Monkey King 美猴王
World premiere at SF Opera in 2025, SF Opera commission
Composed by Huang Rho, libretto by David Henry Hwang, based on Journey to the West

Journey to the West is the second of the great Chinese literary classics commissioned to be adapted into a World Premiere opera. The first being Dream of the Red Chamber, which premiered in 2016. The Monkey King 美猴王 represents an episode for Journey to the West, wherein Sun Wukong (the monkey king of the title) wreaks havoc on the heavens in a bid for immortality.

The Monkey King character and his supernatural abilities have influenced pop culture for generations. There are countless iterations of the Monkey King story and figure, but American audiences may be most familiar with Goku in Dragon Ball whose monkey tail and staff are a direct reference to the wily hero.

Set to premiere at San Francisco Opera in the fall of 2025, The Monkey King 美猴王 will feature music by Huang Ruo and a libretto by David Henry Wang. Award-winning Director Diane Paulus will collaborate with scenic designer and puppeteer Basil twist in bringing the world of The Monkey King from page to stage.

YELLOW FACE: PBS GREAT PERFORMANCES / August 18, 2024 by David Hwang

Tony Award® winner and three-time Pulitzer finalist David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) will make his Roundabout debut with the Broadway premiere of Yellow Face, his hilarious is-he-or-isn’t-he comedy of identity, show business, and (perhaps) autobiography. Starring Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and directed by Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (Violet).

Inspired by real events, the playwright’s fictionalized doppelgänger protests yellowface casting in Miss Saigon, only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play. This Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer finalist play is a laugh-out-loud farce about the complexities of race.

For more information or to buy tickets

SOFT POWER / June 17, 2024 by David Hwang

SOFT POWER - DC Premiere

August 6 – September 15, 2024

A visionary musical fantasia by Tony Award winners David Henry Hwang (Yellow Face, M. Butterfly) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Kimberly Akimbo).

After the 2016 election, when a Chinese American playwright is attacked by an unknown assailant, he hallucinates a Golden Age musical comedy about a Chinese theater producer and Hillary Clinton falling in love. Hilarious and biting, this political satire dares to ask: Does American Democracy still work? And is it worth believing in?

An exhilarating ride through political absurdity with a faceoff between Chinese and American exceptionalism, Soft Power makes an electric debut in the nation’s capital.

“Subversive as well as funny, touching and thoroughly entertaining… You may never look at an American musical the same way again.” – Variety

For more information or to buy tickets for SOFT POWER

An American Soldier / July 8, 2023 by David Hwang

An American Soldier

May 12-19, 2024

Composed by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Conducted by Carolyn Kuan
Directed by Chay Yew

The New York Premiere of a soaring new opera based on a powerful true story.

On October 3, 2011, Chinese-American Army Pvt. Danny Chen was found dead in a guard tower at his base in Afghanistan. Based on his story and the ensuing courts-martial of Chen’s fellow soldiers, this New York City premiere opera tells the powerful true story of a young soldier from Manhattan’s Chinatown who sought to serve his country, only to find his biggest threat was the very people who swore to protect him.

Told through the multidimensional music of Huang Ruo (M. Butterfly, Book of Mountains and Seas) with libretto by Tony and Grammy winner David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Soft Power), and directed by Obie Award winner Chay Yew (Cambodian Rock Band, Sweatshop Overlord), An American Soldier is a powerful and unforgettable experience.

Co-Produced by PAC NYC, Boston Lyric Opera, and American Composers Orchestra.

The 2024 version was co-commissioned by PAC NYC and Boston Lyric Opera.

Photo by Jai Lennard. David Lee, model.

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The Rift / April 7, 2022 by David Hwang

Huang Ruo, award-winning composer
David Henry Hwang, Tony Award-winning playwright, librettist, and screenwriter

The controversial origin of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is at the heart of this story featuring interconnected yet conflicting characters: Maya Lin, the Chinese American student architect of the memorial’s design; a Vietnam War veteran; a Vietnamese refugee; and a government official.

Premiered as part of Written In Stone

Kennedy Center, March 5-25, 2022.

Circus Days and Nights / April 7, 2022 by David Hwang

An entirely new work meets an entirely new form: Circus Days and Nights is a circus opera in two acts, written by legendary composer Philip Glass. Its inspiration is Robert Lax’s masterwork Circus Days and Nights, a collection of poems that draws us into the poet’s fascination with acrobats and the circus lifestyle and takes us on the road with him when he “runs away” and joins a circus in 1940s America. For Lax, the circus becomes a metaphor for life itself – the cycle of life and death – and for human yearning and striving. Circus Days and Nights will be a boundary-crossing performance that brings the circus ring into the opera house.

I have had the rights to the poem for about ten years, but I couldn’t write the piece because I hadn’t found my circus. When I saw Tilde’s staging of Satyagraha it struck me: Here’s my circus

PHILIP GLASS

In Robert Lax’s poem and vision of the circus as a metaphor for life, I discovered a soulmate and ever since, Circus Days and Nights has had a permanent place on my nightstand. In Philip Glass’s music, I heard the ultimate circus music, music that commingles with the circus disciplines. Having the opportunity to bring together these two sources of inspiration is dizzying and fills me with a sense of humility in the face of life’s breathtaking leaps of faith.

TILDE BJÖRFORS

I read the poems and I was really touched by their beauty, their simplicity in a sense, and yet their profundity. The way Lax envisions Circus as an act of creation and the cycle of putting up a show and taking it down is the cycle of life itself.

DAVID HENRY HWANG

Circus Days and Nights
An opera by Philip Glass
Libretto: David Henry Hwang, Tilde Björfors
Based on the poems by Robert Lax
Director and concept: Tilde Björfors
Set and costume design: Magdalena Åberg
Lighting Design: Ellen Ruge and Robert Hvenström
Sound Design: Avgoustos Psillas
Conductor: Minna Weurlander
Rigging Design: Saar Rombout
Choreography: Methinee Wongtrakoon, Simon Wiborn

Circus artists
Aaron Hakala
Andreas De Ryck
Beatriz Pantojo
Methinee Wongtrakoon
Nikolas Pulka
Peter Åberg
Simon Wiborn

Soloists
Elin Rombo
Margaux de Valensart
Jakob Högström
Anton Ljungqvist

Ensemble
Karolina Blixt
Lars Johansson Brissman
Pierre Heault
Susanna Stern

Musicians
Minna Weurlander, accordion
Viktor Nordliden, cello
Inga Zeppezauer, violin
Blagoj Lamnjov, clarinet
Oscar Fransson, trumpet
Martin Jönsson, bass trombone
Sigvald Fersum, percussion

Circus riggers
Mathieu Grégoire
Saar Rombout

Malmö Opera chorus patricipates in the performances at Malmö Opera

World premiere on May 29, at Malmö Opera, Sweden.

Circus Days and Nights is a co-production between Cirkus Cirkör and Malmö Opera

M. Butterfly / August 29, 2019 by David Hwang

M. BUTTERFLY

July 30 - August 24, 2022

The Santa Fe Opera

Libretto by David Henry Hwang

Music by Huang Ruo

Don’t miss this highly anticipated World Premiere Opera.

Rene Gallimard, a civil servant at the French embassy in Beijing, falls in love with a beautiful Chinese opera singer named Song Liling, who holds two shocking secrets, both of which eventually bring Gallimard professional and personal ruin. Broadway’s smash hit is transformed to operatic form.

"IT SEEMED TIME TO FINALLY EMBARK UPON MY DREAM OF BRINGING 'M. BUTTERFLY' BACK TO THE WORLD OF OPERA...HUANG RUO AND I BELIEVE IT WILL ALLOW THIS STORY TO TAKE WING, MORE BEAUTIFULLY AND POWERFULLY THAN EVER BEFORE." -LIBRETTIST DAVID HENRY HWANG

R ead more about M. BUTTERFLY the opera

Soft Power / June 17, 2019 by David Hwang

Soft Power

By David Henry Hwang & Jeanine Tesori

What begins as a comedy set in 2016, suddenly jumps into the future, where the scene we just witnessed has been mythologized as the basis of a beloved Chinese musical. A Chinese executive finds himself falling in love with a good-hearted American leader, as the power balance between their two nations shifts, and a new world order arrives. Soft Power imagines what the world -- and the musical -- might become once China gains international cultural dominance, or “soft power.” A Center Theatre Group/Public Theater co-commission, and the first collaboration between Hwang and Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), Soft Power premiered in May 2018 at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre, before traveling to the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. It won six 2019 LA Ovation Awards, including Best Production of a Musical.

Soft Power made its New York premiere at The Public Theater, September 24 - November 10, 2019. Among other recognition, it received four Outer Critics Circle Honors, eleven Drama Desk Nominations, and was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Dream of the Red Chamber / June 17, 2019 by David Hwang

Libretto by David Henry Hwang and Bright Sheng
Music by Bright Sheng
Based on the book by Cao Xueqin

The company of Dream of the Red Chamber. Photo by Cory Weaver for the San Francisco Opera.

Based on the book by 18th-century Qing Dynasty writer Cao Xueqin, Dream of the Red Chamber (also known as The Story of the Stone) is one of the four great classical Chinese novels, considered by many to be the pinnacle of Chinese literature. Dream of the Red Chamber was commissioned by San Francisco Opera and premiered there in 2016, directed by Stan Lai, in a coproduction with the Hong Kong Arts Festival, which presented the work in spring 2017, prior to a fall tour of Mainland China.

Yijie Shi and Pureum Jo. Photo by Cory Weaver for the San Francisco Opera.

An American Soldier / June 17, 2019 by David Hwang

AN AMERICAN SOLDIER

Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Music by Huang Ruo

On October 3, 2011, Chinese-American Army Pvt. Danny Chen was found dead in a guard tower at his base in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Based on his story, and drawing from the ensuing courts-martial of Chen's fellow soldiers, An American Soldierexplores what happens when the very people who are supposed to protect you in a combat zone become your enemy.

An American Soldier was commissioned by the Washington National Opera, and premiered as a one hour-long work, performed in English in 2014, directed by David Paul. The full-length version premiered in 2018 at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, directed by James Robinson.

Guang Yang as Mother Chen and Andrew Stenson as Danny Chen. Photo by Scott Suchman for the Washington National Opera, 2015

Andrew Stenson as Danny Chen. Photo by Scott Suchman for the Washington National Opera, 2015

Guang Yang as Mother Chen. Photo by Scott for the Washington National Opera, 2015

Andrew Stenson as Danny Chen. Photo by Scott Suchman for the Washington National Opera, 2015

Trevor Scheunemann as Sgt. Marcum and Andrew Stenson as Danny Chen. Photo by Scott Suchman for the Washington National Opera, 2015

Icarus at the Edge of Time / June 17, 2019 by David Hwang

ICARUS AT THE EDGE OF TIME

Libretto by David Henry Hwang and Brian Greene
Music by Philip Glass
Film by AL + AL

Based on the novella by renowned theoretical physicist Brian Greene, Icarus at the Edge of Time re-imagines the well-known Greek myth as a space age story of a boy who goes against authority by flying too close to a black hole. Icarus at the Edge of Timepremiered at Lincoln Center as part of the World Science Festival, in 2010, directed by Jude Kelly. It was presented at the Southbank Centre in London that same year, and has toured internationally.

The Fly / June 16, 2019 by David Hwang

THE FLY

Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Music by Howard Shore

The opera is loosely based on David Cronenberg's 1986 film The Fly, which was based on the short story of the same name by George Langelaan.

The Fly is an exploration of the physical and psychological transformation in which a brilliant scientist begins to mutate into a hybrid of man and fly after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. The Fly premiered in Paris at Théâtre du Châtelet and in the United States in at the Los Angeles Opera in 2008, in a production directed by David Cronenberg. It was co-commissioned by both companies.

Ruxandra Donose as Veronica Quaife and Daniel Okulitch as Seth Brundle in The Fly Photo by Robert Millard for the Los Angeles Opera, 2008

Gary Lehman (center) as Stathis Borans in The Fly. Photo by Robert Millard for the Los Angeles Opera, 2008

Ruxandra Donose as Veronica Quaife and Daniel Okulitch as Seth Brundle in The Fly. Photo Robert Millard for the Los Angeles Opera, 2008

Ruxandra Donose as Veronica Quaife in The Fly. Photo by Robert Millard for the Los Angeles Opera, 2008

Daniel Okulitch as Seth Brundle in The Fly. Photo by Robert Millard for the Los Angeles Opera, 2008

Beth Clayton (top) as the Officer, with Ruxandra Donose as Veronica Quaife in The Fly. Photo by Robert Millard for the Los Angeles Opera, 2008

Alice In Wonderland / June 16, 2019 by David Hwang

ALICE IN WONDERFUL

Libretto by David Henry Hwang and Unsuk Chin
Music by Unsuk Chin

Based on Lewis Carroll's novel, Alice in Wonderland premiered at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 2007, in a production directed by Achim Freyer. In a survey of the German music magazine Opernwelt’s opera critics, the opera was hailed as the "World Première of the Year”.

Ainadamar / June 16, 2019 by David Hwang

AINADAMAR

Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Music by Osvaldo Golijov

Ainadamar tells the story of playwright Federico García Lorca and his producer and muse, Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu, including Lorca’s murder by the Falange. The male Lorca is played by a woman as a “trousers role,” adding another dimension to the exploration of sexuality and gender.

Ainadamar premiered at Tanglewood Music Center in 2003, directed by Chay Yew. A revised version was later presented at the Santa Fe Opera in 2005, directed by Peter Sellars, and has been performed extensively throughout the world. Its recording on Deutsche Grammophone won two 2006 Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Photos from the Santa Fe Opera production, 2005.

Production reel from Opera Parallèle production, 2013

The Sound of a Voice / June 16, 2019 by David Hwang

THE SOUND OF A VOICE

Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Music by Philip Glass

Based on Hwang’s play of the same name, The Sound of a Voice explores intimacy between people who have lived in seclusion. In the first part, an aging Japanese warrior arrives at the home of a mysterious woman who lives like a hermit deep in the woods. Has he come as her suitor, or her assassin? In the second part, an elderly Japanese writer visits a mysterious brothel, which caters to men near the end of their lives by providing them with a means to relive their youth.

The Sound of a Voice premiered in 2003 at Boston’s American Repertory Theatre, directed by Robert Woodruff, produced in association with the Court Theatre in Chicago.

The Sound of a Voice part 1: Herbert Perry and Suzan Hanson. Photo by Richard Feldman for the American Repertory Theatre, 2003

The Sound of a Voice part 2: House of Dreams. Eugene Perry and Janice Felty. Photo by Richard Feldman for the American Repertory Theatre, 2003

The Silver River / June 15, 2019 by David Hwang

THE SILVER RIVER

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.

The Voyage / June 15, 2019 by David Hwang

THE VOYAGE

Libretto by David Henry Hwang
Music by Philip Glass

Alternating between the exploration of space, and Columbus’ exploration of the seas, A Voyage is a general study of exploration - of the oceans, of space and time and of the mind.

The Voyage was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and premiered there in 1992, directed by David Poutney.

The Voyage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Photo by Winnie Klotz.

1000 Airplanes on the Roof / June 15, 2019 by David Hwang

1000 AIRPLANES ON THE ROOF

Text by David Henry Hwang
Created with Philip Glass & Jerome Sirlin

1000 Airplanes on the Roof is the story of “M.,” a New Yorker who is abducted by aliens, probed and questioned, then returned to Earth and told to forget the event. The ambiguity of M.’s experience – was it real or hallucinated? – is never fully resolved; it is a parable on contemporary’s man’s search for identity in a bewildering world.

Originally presented in the Vienna Airport, Hanger #3 in 1988, directed by Philip Glass. Subsequent national and international tours, including an engagement at New York City’s Beacon Theatre, recreated the original production, including Jerome Sirlin’s holographic “visual libretto” projections.

Disney's Tarzan / June 14, 2019 by David Hwang

DISNEY’S TARZAN

The Cast of TARZAN®_ photo by Joan Marcus. ©DISNEY 2006.

Music and lyrics by Phil Collins
Book by David Henry Hwang

Adapted from Disney's epic animated musical adventure and Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes, Hwang wrote the book for this world renowned musical which was scored by rock legend, Phil Collins. Telling the classic story of a boy washed up on the shores of West Africa, and raised by jungle animals, the musical explores the love story between Jane and Tarzan, and the ways in which his animal upbringing clash with his human instincts.

Tarzan opened on Broadway in 2006, and ran over a year before going on to numerous regional and international productions. The German production has been running since 2008.

The German production ran from 2008-2018 and was voted most popular long-running musical three times.

A revival opened in 2023 and is currently running at the Stage Palladium Theater Stuttgart.

Purchase Tarzan (book), (music)