The National Palace Museum under Chou Kung-shin (周功鑫) has sought to extend itself in a variety of new directions. Its New Melody series launched in July 2009 saw the linking of visual arts with performance arts, and has proved remarkably successful. With the announcement earlier this week that a completely new opera will be commissioned for the series, the museum is taking this idea a step further.
The opera, titled Kangxi Emperor and Louis-Dieudonne (康熙大帝與太陽王路易十 四), the production of which has been entrusted to Contemporary Legend Theatre (當代傳奇劇場), will be performed in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name that will run from Oct. 3 until Jan. 1 next year.
At a press conference held to announce this new and innovative collaboration, Chou said that the New Melody series’ linking of visual and performance arts had been a huge success.
Photo Courtesy of Contemporary Legend Theatre
“Since I took up my position in 2008, I have aimed to make the National Palace Museum a place with which everyone is familiar,” she said. “Of course, there has been criticism, with people saying it has become like a vegetable market or department store. If people come in any numbers, of course there is going to be noise. But if people come, they will learn, and if they come often, their appreciation of art will increase, and this will change their lives. With the New Melody series, what we wanted to do is provide a multifaceted introduction to art, one in which these works would leave a lasting impression. It is based on our experience of [the series] that we have taken on this new challenge, for we believe that the combination of visual and performance arts is a powerful one.”
The opera will be performed in the plaza outside the National Palace Museum on Oct. 15 and Oct. 16. Three additional performances will be held at the Miaoli Arena (苗栗小巨蛋) from Oct. 21 to Oct. 23.
Although the production is still a work in progress, the casting has begun. Contemporary Legend founder Wu Hsing-kuo (吳興國) will play the role of the Kangxi Emperor (康熙), while the court of Louis XIV will include tenor Jean Francois Novelli (as Louis), soprano Camille Poul and baritone Pierrick Boisseau. The libretto will be written by novelist Chang Ta-chun (張大春), who collaborated with Contemporary Legend on its pop-opera fusion trilogy 108 Heroes (水滸108), and the costumes will be created by Oscar-winning designer Tim Yip (葉錦添), who made the costumes for Ang Lee’s (李安) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍). The set and lighting design will be by Lin Keh-hua (林克華), who has been associated with many of Taiwan’s most successful international theatrical projects, most notably the sets for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集). Conductor Paul Chiang (江靖波), the founder of Philharmonia Moments Musicaux (樂興之時管弦樂團), will be entrusted with managing the difficult combination of baroque music and kun opera (崑曲).
Photo Courtesy of Contemporary Legend Theatre
The essential point of both the exhibition and the opera is to show the cultural heights achieved under two powerful rulers who held sway over their respective domains at roughly the same time, and also to highlight the interaction that took place between the European and Chinese cultures during that period, often through the medium of Jesuit missionaries. Wu announced an ambitious design that employ tiered outdoor stage so that life at the early Qing Dynasty court could be juxtaposed with the different but equally sumptuous court of Louis XIV.
This is not the first time that high culture musical fusions between Taiwan and France have been attempted. This kind of project can be traced back to Han Tang Yuefu’s (漢唐樂府) Le Jardin des Delices (梨園幽夢) in 1999, if not earlier, and there have been many attempts at various forms of fusion since then. With a cast of 45, and an orchestra of 45 musicians from very different traditions, the talent and ambition behind this project augurs a memorable show that encapsulates the National Palace Museum’s broad new ambitions.
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