For many of Taiwan's foreign community, sitting through traditional Chinese opera is at best a minor penance, and at worse a couple of hours of unremitting hell. Most often such performances -- lasting between two and three hours -- are sat through as an offering on the altar of cultural awareness, and while bouts of physical virtuosity may be applauded, there is often little else that can appeal to a Western audience.
The Kenneth Pai (
Kunqu, the operatic form in which The Peony Pavilion is presented, is regarded by many as one of the oldest living operatic traditions of China. The form's inclusion in the UNESCO inaugural "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" list (March 18, 2001) does not do a lot to inspire confidence, in circles outside the cultural cognoscenti. That kunqu shares a listing with Kuttiyattam Sanskrit Theatre and Georgian Polyphonic Singing as an art form which is of "outstanding value, [has] roots in cultural tradition, [is] an affirmation of cultural identity, source of inspiration and intercultural exchange, contemporary cultural and social role, [shows] excellence in the application of skills, [is a] unique testimony of living cultural tradition, and risk of disappearing" is not necessarily a great motivation to drop more than NT$6,000 for a nine-hour performance over three days.
That kunqu has been recognized by a body such as UNESCO is obviously a good thing for all involved in this art form, but it is perhaps more important that someone like novelist Kenneth Pai has decided to put his very considerable international reputation behind the revival of this art form. For Pai, this production of The Peony Pavilion is the culmination of a lifetime's dedication to kunqu, one that has only been achieved due to his own unique position in the Chinese literary
pantheon.
The Peony Pavilion, also known as The Return of the Soul, is a classic of the kunqu repertoire and a number of scenes such as "Wandering in the Garden" and "Waking from a Dream" are regularly performed in compilations of opera highlights.
The complete opera, with 55 scenes and an approximate performance time of 20 hours is now virtually never seen in its entirety. (Though the form's appeal is underlined by the sellout performance in July 1999 at the Lincoln Center, New York of a complete 20-hour production.)
The current production is an abridgement of this gargantuan work, weighing in at 28 scenes that will be performed over approximately nine hours divided over three evenings. A major part of Pai's involvement in this production has been in the editing of the opera to bring it down to manageable size.
"Everything we have is in the original," said Pai, to emphasize that no transitional passages had been introduced during the editorial process. Although Kenneth Pai is arguably the greatest of contemporary Chinese writers, he has had no wish to tamper with the original lyrics. The main purpose behind his abridgement is to allow the huge work to be presented in something resembling its entirety, so that the overall dramatic structure remains intact.
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