Other images, such as designs taken from Tang Dynasty bronze mirrors, of which the museum has a huge collection, have also been incorporated into the production’s stage design. Lanting created new costumes for the production, which Wang said reference Tang Dynasty-style garments, but do not transgress the limits imposed by operatic convention.
In recent years, many Chinese opera companies have worked to create their own productions of the generally long and discursive classic operas of yore, with a preference for a running time of around three hours.
Wang said the company settled on a 90-minute format out of consideration for the type of audience that the New Melody series would likely attract.
“Our audience this time is different from your regular theater-goer. They are museum-goers. They will probably be taking in the show as part of a museum visit,” she said. Wang added that event organizers in Hong Kong had expressed interest in Lanting’s condensed version.
Wang’s production will be the first time that the museum’s auditorium has been used for a full operatic production. This has been made possible by the donation of high-definition screens and projection equipment from Delta Electronics (台達電子), which allow the use of multimedia effects to highlight portions of Emperor Ming-huang’s Flight to Szechwan at different points in the performance, and the inclusion of easy-to-read side titles in both English and Chinese.
Wang said that staging the production in a facility that had primarily been designed as a lecture hall posed considerable problems, but the small size of the venue (around 200 seats) should allow a more intimate appreciation of the performers than is possible in all but the very best seats of a venue such as the National Theater.
The museum will hold a series of lectures on Tang Dynasty painting and kun opera ranging from a discussion of the portrayal of Tang Dynasty serving women in art by National Palace Museum researcher Tsai Hsiao-fen (蔡玫芬, July 17) to a talk on the different types of male roles in kun opera given by Wen (July 24), who plays the emperor in the opera.
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