Opera Boston announces the company's first commissioned work- the world premiere of Madame White Snake, a new opera based on a beloved ancient Chinese legend, by composer Zhou Long and librettist Cerise Lim Jacobs. Co-commissioned with the Beijing Music Festival (BMF), it is the first world premiere by the BMF and an American company. Madame White Snake will have three performances (Feb. 26, 28, and March 2, 2010) at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston and two performances in Beijing in October 2010. Planning has begun to bring Madame White Snake to several Chinese cities following the Chinese premiere in Beijing; the proposed tour is the first by an American Opera Company in China since San Francisco's Western Opera Company in 1987. The education and outreach program of Madame White Snake is presented by State Street Corporation.
Madame White Snake is one of just four world premieres by U.S. opera companies in the 2009-10 season. Opera Boston Music Director Gil Rose will conduct. RoBert Woodruff will direct. Soprano Ying Huang will sing the title role, and male soprano Michael Maniaci will sing the role of Xiao Qing."We are very proud to announce this major opera commission and multi-cultural production, Madame White Snake by Zhou Long and Cerise Lim Jacobs," said Charnow. "This project marks many historic firsts- Opera Boston's first major commission, our first collaboration with an international music organization and, perhaps most significantly, the first collaboration between the Beijing Music Festival and an American Opera Company. The production will also mark the first time Opera Boston has taken a production to another country."Zhou Long, Madame White Snake's renowned Chinese-American composer, was recently cited by the New York Times as one of the leading Chinese composers, charged with "injecting a new vitality into the American classical music scene." In 2003, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded Zhou Long its Academy Award in Music, recognizing lifetime achievement, saying, "unlike many composers of today working between cultures, Zhou Long has found a plausible, rigorous, and legitimate way of consolidating compositional methods and techniques that allow him to express brilliantly both his experiences as a composer of Western music and his considerable knowledge of his native China. In [his music], Zhou Long displays a stunning (quasi-tactile) orchestral imagination that dramatically demonstrates his skill of embedding elements of the two cultures in a consistent, seamless, and original musical language."Acclaimed as "one of the greatest singers of his generation" (Globe and Mail), Michael Maniaci has been praised for his rare, thrilling voice and sensational stage presence. Mr. Maniaci "possesses a remarkable voice, that marries trumpeting high notes with a warm and supple middle voice and secure bottom" (Washington Post). He is lauded for "his natural male soprano [that] is probably the closest thing on earth to the sound of the castrati of long ago, and he uses it with a finesse that's rare among singers so young" (Globe and Mail). Following his overwhelming success as Tirinto in Glimmerglass Opera's production of Handel's Imeneo, Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times, "The amazing male soprano Michael Maniaci [is] headed for a major career."
Madame White Snake is set in Hangzhou, a sister city to Boston. Mayor Thomas M. Menino and The Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events are working closely with Opera Boston to highlight this sister city connection as planning moves forward for the world premiere.
Madame White Snake, a classical transformation myth, is the story of a powerful white snake demon who transforms into a beautiful woman to experience love. She meets her true love, Xu Xian (sung by tenor Peter Tantsits), at the Broken Bridge on the West Lake in Hangzhou, and marries him. So widely celebrated is their love that a curious Abbot (bass Dong-Jian Gong) investigates. He sees through her human form to the snake. When the Abbot learns that Madame White Snake is pregnant, he is horrified by what he considers a violation of all of the traditional taboos of race and religion, the divine and the profane. He decides to intervene and confronts her husband. Madame White Snake is betrayed by her husband and in the moment of betrayal, she is tragically transformed back into a snake.About Opera BostonVideos