Li Xincao (left), conductor and president of the China Conservatory of Music, and director Chen Wei (second from left) at the launch ceremony of the latest stage adaptation of the Chinese opera, The Wilderness, in Beijing on April 21. [Photo provided to China Daily]
In 1937, Chinese playwright Cao Yu (1910-96), whose real name was Wan Jiabao, released his third play, The Wilderness. Unlike his first two plays — Thunderstorm in 1933 and Sunrise in 1935, which tell stories about urban life — The Wilderness presents a story of love and revenge that unfolds in the countryside.
Reflecting the influence of American playwright Eugene O'Neill on the writer, it revolves around a man named Qiu Hu, who escapes from prison and returns to his home village to kill a local tyrant, Jiao Yanwang, who ruined his family. There, he reunites with his ex-lover, Jinzi, and his former friend, Daxing — son of Jiao.
The Wilderness has been adapted into such performance genres as movies and plays.
In 1987, Cao Yu's daughter, dramatist Wan Fang, turned it into a Chinese opera by working with composer Jin Xiang (1935-2015), who was a professor of the China Conservatory of Music. On July 25 of that year, the Chinese opera premiered in Beijing, performed by the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater. In January 1992, it was staged at the Eisenhower Theater of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, making it one of the first Chinese operas staged in the West.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the China Conservatory of Music, the school announced the restaging of the Chinese opera with Li Xincao, president of the school, serving as the artistic director and Chen Wei, a professor at the school's opera department, as the director.
On July 14 and 15, The Wilderness will be staged at the China National Opera House in Beijing.
China Conservatory of Music students He Haoyuan (left) and Yang Qi perform a song from the opera at the school during the launch. [Photo provided to China Daily]
"The Wilderness has a large fan base. It has been staged for about four decades and is a milestone of China's opera scene," says Li, who's also a veteran conductor, adding that the China Conservatory of Music has staged the show many times as a classic piece of its opera education.
Li watched the premiere in Beijing as a middle school student in 1987.
"The opera impressed me, from its music to its stage sets," says Li, who later began to study conducting at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1989.
"In 1992, Chen let me study acting at the opera department of the China Conservatory of Music, which allowed me to learn The Wilderness. It was the first time I got to know the opera as a music student. I also participated in the rehearsals and played a role when the conservatory's opera department staged The Wilderness as its graduation opera in 2002."
In 2007, Li also worked with the late composer Jin when the opera marked the 20th anniversary of its debut and was staged again in Beijing.
" (Jin) helped me to fully understand the music, and I challenged myself to conduct the whole opera without the score during the performance. That was an unforgettable experience," adds Li.
Chen, who has participated in the staging of the opera many times, says Wan Fang's script is true to her father's original play, which highlights the characters' desperate inner struggle and the intense conflicts.
"Cao Yu has been called China's foremost modern playwright. His works, such as The Wilderness, feature memorable characters with distinctive personalities. They reflect the writer's keen and vivid observations of society," says Chen.
Stage designer Wang Xingang, who was on the creative team of the 1987 premiere of The Wilderness, returns to again work as stage designer in this latest adaptation of the Chinese opera. Using such elements as stones and frames, Wang creates an oppressive atmosphere, to convey the characters' fates and struggles.
China Conservatory of Music students and teachers will stage the upcoming performances.
