|
|
 |
A Chinese Operatic Saga
Sticks and stones
By Paul Pelkonen / photography by Jonathon Tichler
Tan Dun, who composed the score of the martial arts movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," takes his ambitious approach to the Metropolitan Opera.
East meets West under the pen of Chinese composer Tan Dun.
Tan Dun is a unique talent, a composer whose |
fearless style and multicultural approach has broken down many barriers of understanding between the different worlds of Western classical music and Chinese music. With the debut of The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera on December 22, 2006, Tan marked two more milestones. He is the first Asian composer to premiere a new opera at the Met, and the first composer to conduct the premiere of his own work at that theater since Italo Montemezzi led "L'amore di Tre Re" in 1941."
The First Emperor is a collaboration between Tan Dun, the noted director Zhang Yimou, and novelist Ha Jin, who co-wrote the English libretto with the composer. Placido Domingo sings the title role of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. The opera's story dates back to the third century, at the very beginning of Chinese history. At that time, China was comprised of seven warring states. These states were united under the brutal reign of Emperor Qin.
The opera tells the story of the Emperor's desire to create a national anthem for his people. He has General Wang conquer the kingdom of Yan, and bring his childhood friend, the composer Gao Jianli brought before his court. The composer, whose entire village has been destroyed by the Emperor's troops, has been pressed into slavery and branded. He angrily refuses to compose the anthem. Meanwhile, construction on the Great Wall has proved difficult, and the lamentations of the laboring slaves are heard as the curtain falls on the first act.
|
 |
Tan Dun is known for his unconventional approach to instrumentation, and The First Emperor continues in this tradition. Drums, pots, and ceramic jars are played onstage as part of the opera's visual medium. Percussion is contrasted with swirling melodies played in the orchestra pit, which are echoed by a zheng (a zither-like instrument) strummed and plucked onstage. Ancient Chinese bells are struck with logs, turning the opera house into an ancient sonic temple. Tan Dun also uses new percussion techniques such as the "stone drum", played by bouncing small rocks off the drumheads instead of using more conventional drumsticks.
A love triangle emerges between Jianli, the Emperor's daughter Princess Yueyang, (sung by soprano Elizabeth Futral)and General Wang, performed by Chinese bass |
Hao Jiang Tian. The conflict results in the death of both the princess and the general. At the opera's climax, Jianli attacks the Emperor as he approaches the throne. In a fit of rage at his old friend, Jianli tears out his tongue. The last thing the Emperor hears is the composer's final inspiration, the laments of the slaves working at the Wall become the anthem of the new China. The oppressed people of China will rise against the Emperor Qin and put his reign to an end.
Although his methods were ruthless and bloodthirsty, Qin underwent historical rehabilitation under the influence of the Chinese government. 20th century historians recast Qin Shi Huang as a unifying force for China. The Qin Empire defined weights and measures, settled on a universal monetary system, and insisted that his newly conquered people write in a standardized pictograph alphabet. The Emperor's most famous achievement was the Great Wall, designed to protect his new kingdom from Mongol invaders to the north. (The Wall that stands today is not the one built by the Emperor Qin, although remnants of his original wall have been found in northern China.)
|
|
The composer's inventive approach to art is not confined to music. Tan has worked extensively in multimedia and visual media, creating innovative installations that have been displayed in galleries from SoHo to Shanghai. His medium for one of these installations, "Tan Dun Visual Music 2005" consisted of deconstructed, reconstructed and resurrected musical instruments！in this case, broken pianos combined with video footage of the composer taking a sledgehammer to the discarded instruments.
Such iconoclastic moments have marked Tan Dun's thirty-year career in music. He was born in Hunan Province in 1957, growing up in the tiny village of Si Mao. Although he was educated as a youth, the Cultural Revolution forced him to move to Huanjin Province and plant rice for two years, as part of the Maoist dictum requiring educated youths to be re-taught by the peasants. Now 17, he sought solace in music, and began to explore conducting, leading the village musicians in ensembles, playing at weddings and funerals. Often, the musicians under Tan's direction would use improvised instrumentation, including pots and pans. Two events conspired to save Tan from the rice farm: a boat accident killed local members of the Peking Opera, pressing Tan into service as a violinist and arranger with the Opera. Secondly, Tan, after some time performing with the Peking Opera, was accepted at the newly reopened Beijing Central Conservatory in 1978.
The willingness to experiment with unconventional instruments is a continuing thread in Tan Dun's career. His early works were written while still in China, including a first symphony that evokes his childhood village. In 1986, the composer came to America to study at Columbia University. New York City had a profound effect on his creative process, and the immersion in Western compositional techniques led to a period of very modern-sounding works written using the serial techniques first developed by Arnold Schoenberg. These techniques, along with the influence of American iconoclast John Cage, became an essential part of Tan Dun's musical style and appear in The First Emperor.
Today, his music conjoins traditional Chinese instruments with the Western orchestra. His first opera, 1997's Marco Polo, featured Tibetan singing bowls to produce eerie sounds. In the Water Passion According to St. Matthew, Tan replaced the conventional timpani with amplified bowls of water. (Both of these techniques make reappearance in The First Emperor.)
The Paper Concerto used sounds that could be made through the manipulation of paper, contrasted with a more conventional orchestra. But all that pales next to the bold musical strokes in his new opera, The First Emperor. His Symphony 1997: Heaven, Earth, Mankind paired the cello of acclaimed soloist Yo-Yo Ma with the newly rediscovered bianzhong bells, enormous bronze instruments that also showed up in Tan's score for the acclaimed Zhang Yimou film Hero. In an interesting coincidence, Qin Shi Huang was one of the central characters in Hero, and the movie dealt with a plot to assassinate the Emperor.
Although critical reaction to The First Emperor has been mixed, the opera has proved itself to be a box office sensation, selling out its nine performances at the Met. Additionally, The First Emperor will reach a nationwide audience as part of a new Metropolitan Opera program to screen operas in participating digital movie theaters across the United States.
Tan found his voice in the late '80s and early '90s with a return to traditional Chinese music, creating the mighty bridge between East and West that stands as his artistic legacy. He continues to make New York！specifically the Upper West Side！his base of operations, although the extensive rehearsal process for The First Emperor took place in both Shanghai and New York. |
|
