THE DREAM COMES ALIVE ONCE MORE
Six years after the world debut of Dream of the Red Chamber, the first operatic adaptation of the epic 18th century Chinese novel of the same name, the opera returned to San Francisco with a mostly new cast and a more dramatic presentation.
The opera has been acclaimed internationally since its premiere by the San Francisco Opera in 2016. It was presented at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and toured three cities in China in 2017. It returned to the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco with seven performances scheduled from June 14 to July 3.
The soprano Zhang Meigui said she was excited and felt honored when she learned she was going to play Daiyu in the opera.
“It’s such a famous novel in China, and Daiyu is a beloved literary character. I hope to show the audience a fresh version of Daiyu, especially for those who saw it in 2016.”
The 18th century novel centers on a love triangle that involves the hero Baoyu, his beautiful cousin Daiyu and his wife-to-be Baochai. It is a Chinese classic and still widely read in the Chinesespeaking world.
Zhang said she is familiar with the character but after she read the novel again she had new thoughts.
“In the story, Daiyu is not only beautiful but also intelligent, sentimental and frail. She is also strong inside and would like to make sacrifices for love and freedom. I want the audience to see through the beautiful and fragile appearance to the inner characteristics, soft yet strong.”
Born into a musical family in Chengdu, Sichuan province, Zhang, 28, graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2016 and moved to New York, where she attended Mannes School of Music and gained a master’s degree in 2018.
She had been preparing for the opera for half a year, she said. “I watched the video (of the 2016 production). I think the performance of the singer (playing Daiyu) was excellent, because the melody was composed in an unusual way, which is very challenging and requires a lot of technique.”
In one of the most emotionally charged scenes, the burial of flower petals, Daiyu finds her world growing more bleak as her health declines. She sings an aria: “When spring had fled and beauty is spent, who cares for the fallen petals?”
Zhang said: “The singer needs to sustain the high notes with a pianissimo (soft) sound, which requires more breath support and air control. Some parts of the music are more powerful with fortissimo (loud) and require extremely expressive sound.”
The mezzo soprano Wu Hongni, a native of Jiangxi province, plays the role of Baochai. She graduated from Xinghai Conservatory of Music in 2011 in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and received her master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 2017.
Unlike in the 2016 version of Baochai, Wu said she will delve further into the character and show a more independent Baochai.
The renowned playwright and director Stan Lai returns to direct this year’s production. Lai wants Baochai to be endowed with the characteristics of a modern independent woman; and Wu said: “I like this idea.”