This week I saw the Chinese National Opera production of Farewell my Concubine (霸王别姬) and Met Opera’s new Hansel and Gretel at Lincoln Center.
Farewell my Concubine is kind of the opposite of the First Emperor, since it’s a Western-style opera sung in mandarin by chinese people while First Emperor is a Beijing-style opera sung in English by domingo et al. I liked it a lot better. It was not as elaborate, there was no set to speak of, just the four characters in costume. It was in the same concert hall as the philharmonic (avery fisher) and not where city or met opera are, so the stage was filled with the orchestra. But I still liked it better. They projected subtitles (english and chinese) on a screen at the top, which were really useful since it was hard to tell what they were singing at times. The crowd was mostly old chinese people and mainland graduate students. One old couple near us talked throughout the opera. I guess I can’t really complain since I got free tickets. I hope they scale up the production, I think it would do pretty well.
Hansel and Gretel was very much a family affair, like the Magic Flute or Nutcracker. Lots of kids in the audience. The set was very elaborate and detailed. I especially liked the gingerbread house, with its sinister-looking oven and gingerbread children frozen in motion. It was sung in english but it would have been quite impossible to tell what the lyrics were without the subtitles. It just sounded strange, because there is this dissonance between what you hear and what you expect to hear, since you know what the words are supposed to sound like. Still, I enjoyed it much.
