牡丹亭
The Peony Pavilion: A Chinese Love Story From Beyond the Grave
This is the premier example of the Southern-style opera that was popular in the
17th century. This form of opera would feature a large cast and many scenes
playing over several days. This type of production is hardly ever
staged anymore but it was actually presented in 1999
at New York's Lincoln Center as a 20-hour, four-day
extravaganza. The basic template for most Chinese plays involves a
handsome, bright scholar who falls in love with a beautiful maiden.
Trouble usually comes in in the form of parental disapproval, thus creating the
conflict between the young lovers' Confucian obedience to their parents and
their own irrepressible love for each other. Peony Pavilion adheres to
this pattern but throws in a very unusual twist. The young maiden in the
story, Bridal Du, falls in love with a scholar whom she's only met once in
a dream and dies longing for him. But this is just the beginning. The
scholar, Liu Mengmei, happens to be a real person and through sheer accident
ends up staying in her town. Eventually, Liu meets Bridal's
ghost, disinters her body, and she comes back to live. Other complications
then arise. The play also includes a good dose of humor.
The Lincoln Center presentation was preceded by an interesting spat between the
American producers of the show and the Chinese government. After the
Chinese government saw a few scenes during rehearsal, they impounded the
costumes and sets and refused to let the actors travel to New
York because they deemed the show to be "feudal, pornographic, and
superstitious". The director of the show then recruited a new cast of Chinese
actors and managed to put the show together in NY to great acclaim.
Eventually, the Chinese staged their own production in China and Hong Kong to
excellent reviews as well.
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Title
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Mini Review
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The Peony Pavilion
Written by Tang Xianzu, 1550-1616
Translated by Cyril Birch
Indiana University Press, 2002
400 pages
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Rating:
Translation of the actual play, which contains 55 scenes and 200
arias.
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| Library of Chinese Classics: Peony Pavilion
(Chinese-English)
Written by Tang Xianzu, 1550-1616
Translated by Wang Rongpei
Foreign Language Press, 2000
2 volumes, 985 pages, hardcover
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Bilingual edition of Peony Pavilion for hardcore fans,
libraries, and bilingual households. |
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The Peony Pavilion
Written by Xiaoping Yen
Foreign Language Press, 1999
252 pages
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Rating:
Modern English rewrite of the play in the form of a novel.
Recommended for those who don't like to read plays.
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The Peony Pavilion/Lincoln Center
Directed by Chen Shizheng
Produced by the Lincoln Center Festival
Image Entertainment, 2001
120 minutes, DVD and VHS
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For those of us who were not fortunate enough or had
the endurance to sit through 20 hours of opera, this 2-hour video captures the
highlights of the production, with narration by Robert Powell to fill
in the gaps.
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The Peony Pavilion Opera Online
http://www.dialnsa.edu/ecp/peony/ |
Rating:
Very nice site dedicated to the Lincoln Center production. It
provides background about the Southern opera (Kunju) and a synopsis of
each episode.
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Tan Dun: Bitter Love
Composed by Tan Dun
Sony, 1999
Audio CD
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Music composed by Tan Dun, who would later compose the
musical score for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Based on the story of
the Peony Pavilion, the music is a fusion of Chinese and Western style
music with even some Gregorian chants thrown in. |
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