After two years of preparation, almost a year of fine tuning and much media hype, the curtain finally rose on Gao Xingjian's (
Sponsored by the Council for Cultural Affairs (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The production features Chinese opera stars Wu Hsin-kuo (
Critics have quite literally been on the edges of their seats since Gao made his project public at a press conference in Taipei in February this year, which probably helps explain why tickets for all the performances of Snow in August are sold out. While the president, assorted dignitaries and those who purchased tickets well in advance of yesterday's premiere will be fortunate enough to see Gao's latest masterpiece, the rest of us, will, as in the words of an American present at a dress rehearsal, "have to read the book."
After the curtain comes down on Sunday's final act there are, according to organizers, no plans to stage further performances in Taipei. Instead, Gao, Wu and the entire crew will be packing their bags and traveling to France, where Snow in August will be performed in front of a European audience in Marseilles some time next year.
While the cast reads like a "who's who" of Chinese opera, Gao's chronicling of the 250-year dominance of Buddhism in China is far from an a-typical Chinese opera. Instead, Snow in August sees the defined and precise body movements of Chinese opera combined with musical elements of both Western and Chinese classical origin, combined with some very contemporary, highly non-operatic, dance. To ensure the performance's Western operatic elements were as genuine as possible, Gao called on two members of France's Opera de Marseille -- lighting expert Philippe Grosperrin and musical arranger Marc Trautmann -- to add their significant theatrical weight to the project.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
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