Mother of all operas at Wellington Outdoor Concert
On a perfect summer evening in early February, over 200 Wellingtonians came to Wellington’s Botanical Gardens to be treated to an outdoor performance of The Peony Pavilion (Chinese: 牡丹亭; pinyin: Mǔdān tíng). A romantic tragicomedy masterpiece by Tang Xianzu, the greatest Chinese playwright of the sixteenth-century, the Peony Pavilion is a classic of Kunqu opera, the earliest and dominant form of Chinese opera from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Kunqu is known as ‘the mother of a hundred operas’ in China.
At the Botanical Gardens performance, presented by the Confucius Institute and the China Cultural Centre, Beijing-based Chinese opera star DONG Fei was exquisite in his signature role as the female lead in the Peony Pavilion. DONG Fei is one of China’s most famous “dan”, male opera stars who perform young female roles in Chinese theatre. DONG Fei was joined by two outstanding Kunqu opera specialists LU Zhijie and WANG Yu from Suzhou, the original home of Kunqu opera, where the Peony Pavilion became popular for its performances in Suzhou’s famous gardens.
Dr LUO Hui, lecturer in Chinese language at VUW, and Arts and Cultural Advisor for the Confucius Institute was also masterful in his role as the narrator for the performance. Chinese opera is often rendered inaccessible to non-Chinese-speaking audiences, but LUO Hui’s superb bilingual narration helped us follow the plot, as well as perfectly set the tone for this heart-aching classic Chinese love story. The performance was made particularly special by the actors alighting the stage and performing on the grass amongst the audience, a mix of the local Chinese and Kiwi communities arrayed across the lawn of the Dell. Some sat on plastic seats, others on picnic rugs, a little girl crouched in awe at DONG Fei’s feet, a family of ducks joined for a time. The intimacy and artistry of the evening was quite sublime.
The Peony Pavilion is a story of how true love conquers all, though its original text also contained subplots pertaining to the falling Song Dynasty's defense against the aggression of the Jin Dynasty. In its original written form, the drama consists of 55 scenes that would traditionally be performed over several days. The Wellington Botanical Gardens performance comprised two love scenes between the principal characters DU Liniang and LIU Mengmei.
