The Peony Pavilion: A Vivid Dream In A Garden
A garden serves as the stage in the opera.
The Peony Pavilion is one of China's most famous operas, but uncut performances of this romantic 16th century work can take more than 22 hours. Chinese composer Tan Dun, who's best known for his Academy Award-winning score for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has adapted the work into a compact 75 minutes. His version will be performed in the Astor Court — a replica of a Chinese garden — in New York's Metropolitan Museum, beginning tonight.
When The Peony Pavilion was written in 1598, there were no theaters or opera houses in China. So this drama, which takes place in a garden, was actually staged in one, says Tan: "The garden became their live stage, actually, to present the writing, poetry, music and opera."
A few years ago, Tan found himself having tea in a garden outside of Shanghai, listening to the birds and insects — and he had an epiphany.
"And I suddenly realized: maybe we should take this interesting garden opera and come back to today," he says. "I said, 'I want to do a garden opera in this garden.' "
That production played to sold-out crowds every weekend in the garden for two years. Asian art curator Maxwell Hearn saw it there and convinced Tan to bring The Peony Pavilion to New York to stage it in the Metropolitan Museum's indoor Chinese garden. Hearn says Tan has taken this masterpiece and distilled it to its essence.
The Peony Pavilion is a love story that transcends time and space, Hearn says. It contains both dreams and supernatural elements. The heroine, Du Liniang, falls asleep in her family garden and has a vivid dream of falling in love with a handsome young scholar, Liu Mengmei.
"When she wakes up, she is possessed by this dream's imagery," says Hearn. "She pines away after her dream lover until she dies."
After she dies, her dream lover stops in the garden while he's traveling to take his civil service exam. He sees the heroine's portrait and falls in love with it.
"And her ghost visits him," Hearn says. "They, again, have a wonderful romantic encounter and then she persuades him that she is actually buried in the garden and that if he will only disinter her, she can return to life. He digs up her corpse and it's miraculously preserved; she comes back to life."
Characters Du Liniang (left) with her love, Liu Mengmei, in a 2010 production of Peony Pavillion.
Dun has written both new music and adapted the original score, which is being performed by a small ensemble of period instruments — bamboo flutes, a Chinese lute and a percussion ensemble. And, in centuries-old kunqu style, both men and women sing in high falsetto voices. Tan says the style suits the ghostly, transcendent love story.
"The Chinese kunqu opera — so detailed, so silky, so sensitive and so erotic, sometimes, dreamlike," says Tan. "And it's a perfect sort of artistic format for resurrection stories, soul-touchings and love through decades, through different lives."
For the presentation at the Metropolitan Museum, Tan has brought the outdoor sounds of the garden indoors. He and his colleagues have recorded hundreds of hours of audio and have created a sound installation for the audience, so they can hear the wind and the water and the insects.
"And we also have Chinese birds: Shanghai birds, Beijing birds, all kinds," says Tan. "Place it in sort of a surrounding sound system, and from this window and that corner, you hear the birds around."
Hearn, who has put together an eight-room exhibit on Chinese gardens that surrounds the Astor Court, says the live audience for The Peony Pavilion will be limited.
"The one challenge we have is that the garden is very small and the fire code prevents us from having more than 50 individuals in the garden as an audience, because of the number of people who are in the performance itself," he says.
But audiences around the world will be able to experience The Peony Pavilion's ancient, romantic charms live this evening in a streaming video on the Metropolitan Museum's website and on demand starting tomorrow.
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Transcript
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The "Peony Pavilion" is one of China's most famous operas, but do you have, say, 22 hours to spare? Well, that's how long uncut performances of this romantic 16th century work can run. Well, now Chinese composer Tan Dun, who's best known for his Academy Award winning score for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," has adapted the work into a slightly more accessible 75 minutes.
His version will be performed beginning tonight in the Astor Court, a replica of a Chinese garden at New York's Metropolitan Museum. Jeff Lunden reports.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: When the "The Peony Pavilion" was written in 1598, there were no theaters or opera houses in China. So this drama, which takes place in a garden, was actually staged in one, says composer Tan Dun.
TAN DUN: So the garden became their live stage, actually, to present the writing, poetry, music and opera.
LUNDEN: A few years ago, Tan Dun found himself having tea in a garden outside of Shanghai, listening to the birds and insects - and he had an epiphany.
DUN: And I suddenly realized: maybe we should take this interesting garden opera and come back to today. I said I want to do a garden opera in this garden.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC FROM OPERA, "THE PEONY PAVILION")
LUNDEN: That production was a big hit in Shanghai and played to sold-out crowds every weekend in the garden for two years. Asian art curator Maxwell Hearn saw it there and convinced Tan to bring "The Peony Pavilion" to New York to stage it in the Metropolitan Museum's indoor Chinese garden. Hearn says Tan Dun has taken this masterpiece and distilled it to its essence.
MAXWELL HEARN: The full-scale opera is 55 scenes but Tan Dun has excerpted the romantic core of the opera.
(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE PEONY PAVILION")
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing in foreign language)
LUNDEN: "The Peony Pavilion" is a love story that transcends time and space, explains Hearn. It contains both dreams and supernatural elements. The heroine, Du Liniang, falls asleep in her family garden and has a vivid dream of falling in love with a handsome young scholar, Liu Mengmei.
HEARN: When she wakes up, she is possessed by this dream's imagery. She pines away after her dream lover until she dies.
LUNDEN: After she dies, her dream lover stops in the garden while he's traveling to take his civil service exam. He sees the heroine's portrait and falls in love with it.
HEARN: And her ghost visits him. They, again, have a wonderful romantic encounter and then she persuades him that she is actually buried in the garden and that if he will only disinter her, she can return to life. He digs up her corpse and it's miraculously preserved. She comes back to life.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC FROM OPERA, "THE PEONY PAVILION")
LUNDEN: Tan Dun has written both new music and adapted the original score, which is being performed by a small ensemble of period instruments - bamboo flutes, a Chinese lute, and a percussion ensemble. And in centuries-old kunqu style, both men and women sing in high falsetto voices.
(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE PEONY PAVILION")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing in foreign language)
LUNDEN: Tan Dun says the style suits the ghostly, transcendent love story.
DUN: The Chinese kunqu opera - so detailed, so silky, so sensitive and so erotic, sometimes, dreamlike - and it's a perfect sort of artistic format for resurrection stories, soul-touchings and love through decades, through different lives.
(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "THE PEONY PAVILION")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing in foreign language)
LUNDEN: For the presentation at the Metropolitan Museum, Tan Dun has brought the outdoor sounds of the garden indoors. He and his colleagues have recorded hundreds of hours of audio and have created a sound installation for the audience, so they can hear the wind and the water and the insects.
DUN: And we also have China birds: Shanghai birds, Beijing birds, all kinds live from that land, a far away land. Place it in, sort of, a surrounding sound system, and from this window and that corner, you hear the birds around.
LUNDEN: Curator Maxwell Hearn, who has put together an eight-room exhibit on Chinese gardens which surrounds the Astor Court, says the live audience for "The Peony Pavilion" will be limited.
HEARN: The one challenge we have is the garden is very small and the fire code prevents us from having more than 50 individuals in the garden as an audience, because of the number of people who are in the performance itself.
LUNDEN: But audiences around the world will be able to experience "The Peony Pavilion's" ancient, romantic charms live this evening in a streaming video on the Metropolitan Museum's website and on demand starting tomorrow. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: And to get a link to that video stream that Jeff just mentioned, the pictures of "The Peony Pavilion" and hear some music, you can go to our website npr.org.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And from NPR News, this is MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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