‘Farewell my Concubine’ U.S. Tour Kicks Off at SF Opera

Every great epic in world culture has a simple love story at its core. “Farewell my Concubine”—a 22 hundred-year-old Chinese classic based on real events and characters from the end of the Qin dynasty is no exception. Xiang Yu, a heroic warrior, who prefers death to surrender and his loyal concubine, Yu Ji, remain popular characters in present-day China. The Chinese American Inter-Cultural Exchange Foundation (CAICE) and China National Opera House made a stunning break-through debut of a Westernized production of the opera at the San Francisco Opera House last weekend. “It’s a beautiful and tragic love story, like Romeo and Juliet, that has many interpretations,” said Emily Kuo Vong, the producer. “For this production, professor Xiao Bai spent 18 years composing the music in the style of traditional Western opera.” Kuo Vong, who happened to be professor’s Xiao Bai former student, is now a chairwoman of CAICE, based in Dallas, TX, and “Farewell my Concubine” is the first show she produced. This new opera premiered in Beijing on Oct. 12 last year. Xiao Bai, a Shanghai Music Conservatory professor, who’s been conducting for 36 years said over the phone from Shanghai that he was greatly influenced by Russian opera music, especially Alexander Borodin’s “Prince Igor” in creating his Westernized interpretation of the Chinese classic. “Beijing opera is most traditional, performed in high-pitched voices, hard to understand for a Western listener,” said professor Xiao Bai. “I wanted to bring the beauty of this Chinese story and its hero and its beautiful woman to the West in the best form possible.” He also said that while every province in China has its own opera sung in its own language, his goal was to create a new opera accessible for the foreigners who might appreciate the five thousand years of Chinese culture better through the more familiar means. Librettist Wang Jian, director Cao Qijing, and conductor Yu Feng along with a well-trained and highly talented cast have made it possible. On Jan. 19 and 20 the show will be performed in Pasadena, CA, then in Washington D.C. on Jan. 25, in New York on Jan. 27, in Houston, TX on Jan. 30 and 31, and in Dallas, TX, on Feb. 5 and 6. Find out more at www.FarewellMyConcubineUSA.com