This opera is an adaptation of Medea, a Greek tragedy by Euripides. Ye Jin-tian, who has won an Oscar Award for Best Artistic Director, designed the costumes for the opera; Xu Bo-yun, in charge of the music, combines Beijing Opera music with folksongs the western region of Xin Jiang, Mongolian Hoomi...Read more
This opera is an adaptation of Medea, a Greek tragedy by Euripides. Ye Jin-tian, who has won an Oscar Award for Best Artistic Director, designed the costumes for the opera; Xu Bo-yun, in charge of the music, combines Beijing Opera music with folksongs the western region of Xin Jiang, Mongolian Hoomii, and Tibetan Chants. Wu Xing-guo, the director, attempts to replace much of the lyrical vocal singing which typically dominates Beijing Opera with recitatives , neither purely yun-bai, nor purely jing-bai, which is a kind of new language for the theatre. Professor Zhang Xiao-hong of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of National Taiwan University observed that Lin Xiu-wei, who rewrote the opera, powerfully displays female consciousness as “one should not be a woman in this life since she can never be in charge of her own sadness or happiness.”
In 1993 when the opera was first performed, the Ancient Greece setting in the original play was changed to Kroran, a mysterious ancient kingdom. Media was transformed into the Princess of Kroran, who kills her brother and leaves her family in order to elope with her lover to Dunhuang City. However, in his desire to gain wealth and power, Jason intends to marry the Princess of Dunhuang once they get there. In all her fury, the Princess of Kroran pretends to give a wedding present, a poisoned robe, to the Princess of Dunhuang, who dies a terrible death when she puts on the robe. Her father, the Lord of Dunhuang, cannot bear to watch on helplessly at the tragic death of his daughter and embraces her body, falling down to the ground and dying of poison as well. To do further harm to Jason, she kills her own daughter and escapes by means of witchcraft. Jason is left alone rue his fate for the rest of his life.
Category | Xiqu(Traditional Opera) |
Type | Beijing Opera |
Chinese Title | 樓蘭女 |
Group | Contemporary Legend Theatre |
Creative staff | Contemporary Legend Theatre |
Subtitle | Mandarin Chinese /English |
Premiere | 1993 |
Venue | National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall,Taipei |
Duration | 100min |
Image Source | |
Other Works | The Kingdom of Desire Waiting for Godot King Lear |