You must have read or heard of the sad love story between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. But can you imagine the two singing opera in English instead of speaking poetic Chinese?
Jia and Lin are two characters from the classic Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions (《红楼梦》), written by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763). Now the book has been made into an English-language opera. After being performed in San Francisco, US, the performance came to Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan in 2017.
Many of the opera's creators have backgrounds in both Chinese and American cultures, including the director and playwrights (剧作家). Their understanding of both cultures helped them change a Chinese classic into a foreign-language opera.
The book, which covers the rise and fall of the Jia family, has 120 chapters and hundreds of characters. But opera writer David Henry Hwang cut down the number of characters to just seven. Hwang, a Chinese-American, focused on the love story between Jia and Lin and tried to write a heartbreaking tragedy that everyone would understand.
The art director Timmy Yip, from Hong Kong, tried to help foreign people understand the characters using costumes and stage settings. He compared Lin to water and gave her a light green costume. When Lin showed up on stage, there was usually water around her on the stage.
The creators considered it to be a meaningful job to introduce a Chinese classic to Westen audiences. Hwang told China Daily he was happy to "have made a contribution to the land where my parents were born."
