The usual suspects of Asian high culture -- Tan Dun, Zhang Yimou, Ha Jin, Emi Wada -- show up for something a little unusual: one of New York's most talked about operas in recent years.
During dress rehearsal for the opening scene of Tan Dun's much anticipated The First Emperor, the composer-conductor addresses the American opera singers onstage from the orchestra pit: "This is not Wagner, it's Chinese opera," he says, as he waves his conductor's baton rhythmically in the air and instructs them to produce a more hollow vocal sound akin to Peking opera.
The chorus on stage (comprised mostly of American opera singers playing the disgruntled people of the new Qin Empire) frigidly adjust themselves to the unaccustomed musical moves by slapping their thighs and chanting in unison. Meanwhile, the stone drummers in the front row attempt to recreate Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) percussive sounds bare-handed while the ceramic players strike Tibetan singing bowls producing haunting notes that resonate with the orchestral music.
The opera's Eastern and Western prophets -- golden-fingered Shaman (played by Michelle Deyong) and acrobatic Yin-Yang master (played by Taiwanese Peking opera singer Wu Hsin-kuo) -- try to mirror each other's movements and dramatic singing, even though they are distinctly different in sound and build.
Such unusual interactions are common in this daunting hybrid of East and West, necessitating translations in both directions, constant tweaking of the score, and creative improvisation for an Asian creative team to work with a leading American cast which includes famed tenor Placido Domingo singing the title role, soprano Elizabeth Futral as Princess Yueyang, and Paul Groves as the fugitive sage of music Gao Jianli.
An epic Chinese tale sung in English with a libretto by Tan and National Book Award-winning novelist Ha Jin, the opera is innovative in its spirit. In addition to the American-based Tan and Jin, famed Asian artists rounded out the crew, transforming the new opera into a visual wonder, with bombastic and beautiful period costumes created by Emi Wada, elastic dances performed by sleek Shanghai choreographer Huang Doudou. The czar of China cinema Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern and Hero) and Chinese set designers Fan Yue and Wang Caoge devised a central black aluminum staircase and rope suspending bricks of the Great Wall. With the versatile 36-step bleacher they created, the stage could depict an altar, royal court, prison cell, a princess's bedroom, or the Great Wall under various theatrical effects.
The making of a king
Adapted from Wei Lu's screenplay The Emperor's Shadow (Qin Song), The First Empeor is a riveting tale of nationalism, passion and betrayal. The story focuses on Emperor Qin -- the first emperor who unified ancient China in 221 B.C. -- a controversial tyrant who is best known for his conquests and building of the Great Wall. The warlord is perhaps best remembered by modern Chinese for creating the phalanx of terra cotta soldiers in his Xian tomb, and for notorious acts such as book-burning and the live-burial of intellectuals to placate dissenting voices in his new kingdom.
In recreating the life of the dictator, the librettists deliberately looked beyond the politics and reduced the controversial figure to a human level by depicting him torn between the love for his daughter Princess Yueyang and his greater responsibility to the nation.
"We are aware of the costs of humanity [inflicted by Emperor Qin]; it's part of our [Chinese] conscience. But we tried an opposite approach and looked beyond the dark side of it," explains Jin.
Composer Tan Dun says the greatest operas are comprised of romantic stories and he believes the emotional and sensual elements can better serve the dramatic function and propel the story and music.
"How can he [Emperor Qin] find something that can uniform people's hearts? That's very dramatic indeed. It's really an expression of his desire to find his own soul and that of a nation. But he failed eventually and found himself alone at the height of his power," he says.
Like Emperor Qin's futile quest for a national song, the search for universality also probes into the question of identities in this increasingly globalized world. "Do we need a national anthem? The anthem [in this opera] could be for the Chinese or it could be for people of the Mississippi, or any other place," Tan says.
Looking back, Jin jokes that he was "coaxed" into the production. "I knew nothing about opera, but Tan Dun insisted that it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interlace Eastern and Western on the Met stage. So I agreed to take the risk." What Jin learned from his new role as a co-librettist was a totally different approach to writing. "As a writer you can retreat to the page, it's a solitary process. But writing for opera is all about teamwork," he says. And in his case, he didn't get to listen to how his libretto sounded like until the rehearsal months after. Hence, he had to keep tweaking the lyrics to make it more "singable." However, Jin did yield a byproduct from the experience: the challenges inspired him to write a short story about a writer struggling to write for music.
Musical assemblage
Tan Dun has created many musical marvels for film and concert halls, and his oeuvre has oscillated between the ancient shamanic and modern avant-garde sounds. His latest musical experiment is perhaps the boldest of all. The First Emperor -- an original opera production commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera is the most expensive opera to date and took ten years to complete.
In his quest to retrieve the ancient sound, the master interweaved Eastern and Western musical techniques to create a modern musical gem which is an answer to new world music. For the traditionally trained Chinese composer, it wasn't easy for Tan to create a new art form that balances and utilizes various sensibilities.
To grow accustomed to the Western operatic tunes, Tan spent the past decade attending many Western opera performances at the Met and fervently studying the opera repertoire. "I believe that if artists want to bring the tradition forward, they must first embrace the past within their hearts. Then, miracles will arrive," he says.
During his search for a compelling story in which to root his music, Tan looked to China's legendary past and shaped his protagonist through the tumultuous life of Qin Shi Huang, ancient China's first emperor.
The 49-year-old Tan believes the multicultural production will create a "Marco Polo effect" and unleash greater interests of China in the West.
"I hope the American culture and the world culture could become one culture. I hope this opera could reach a lot of territory which gave us much more new ideas and new meaning for our life today," he says.
Tan delved into extensive research to find traces and clues of the ancient sound. But to his dismay, there were few historical materials describing the instruments and melodies in the ancient Qin dynasty imperial court.
"From two lines in a history book that I found in the Shanghai Museum, I read that ceramics were widely used and that music was made mostly with chanting accompanied by ritualistic body movements, such as clapping and hitting parts of the body such as the chest and thigh," he says.
Therefore, he decided to revive the ancient ditties with his imagination. "From the scant information, I tried to imagine and envision how music would have sounded then and the instruments that were used," he says. "I opened the opera with an unconventional ensemble in which musicians play specially designed Chinese drums by hitting it with stones, a new way of playing that I invented and visualized for the music from 2000 years ago."
Besides the new techniques, Tan employs an assemblage of ceramic chimes, giant bells, guzheng, and water-phones, as well as ceramic instruments, such as terra cotta clay pots and tiles in different sizes and shapes to add sonic texture to the performance.
Tan had the rare privilege of giving final and personal touches to his piece. "It has always been a dream of mine to be like Stravinsky or Puccini, who conducted their own operas. It's the best opportunity to communicate directly with your audience," he says.
"The first emperor searches for his soul through music. I'm connecting different souls through music ¡V in this opera you will hear many different cultures and varying types and interpretations of life and love."
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