The NCPA Opera Commission The Red Sorghum will have its world premiere from September 27th to October 3rd. On August 25th, a press conference was attended by ZHANG Yao, Vice President of the NCPA, core members of the creative team, including librettist MO Yan, composer GUO Wenjing and director WAANG Xiaodi, and the lead cast including SONG Yuanming, WU Liere, GUO Zizhao and WANG Chong. They shared with the media the creative process and the highlights of the opera.
At the moment to mark the 80th anniversary of the victories of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War, the NCPA chooses to premiere its 23rd opera commission, The Red Sorghum. It will be staged creatively as a literary classic to eulogise the eternal and passionate national spirit.
Adapted from MO Yan’s novel of the same title, Red Sorghum Clan, the opera The Red Sorghum, which took two years to produce, boasts a libretto written personally by MO Yan and music composed by GUO Wenjing, at the invitation of the NCPA. The libretto retains the core characters and main plot of the original novel, as well as distinctive regional features and personality characteristics. GUO Wenjing has breathed new life into the opera by blending his composition with the local Mao tune, Liu tune, Shandong Bangzi opera music, Shandong clapper ballads, Jiaozhou yangko and folk songs of Gaomi. The orchestral music leverages Chinese instruments, such as suona and banhu melodies. With the regional style and national character well reserved, he has composed it as if it were a grand opera, thereby making the musical language both symphonic and dramatic.
Together with a top creative team, including the set designer JI Qiao, costume designer CHEN Tongxun, lighting designer XING Xin, video projection designer HU Tianji and props designer WANG Weijun, the director WANG Xiaodi has created a highly amazing stage setting, which is almost dominated by a sorghum field. With coloured lights and multimedia pictures changing continuously, the sorghum field, swaying in the wind, acts as the seedbed for emotions, or the barrier against aggression. The bright-red bridal sedan chair and nuptial chamber, as well as blood-red liquor jars, are used for a symbolic expression, making it possible to build an imaginative stage space that is of the realistic and impressionistic style.
The opera will be performed by the China NCPA Chorus and Orchestra under the baton of LÜ Jia, Music and Artistic Director of the NCPA. The lead cast appeared at the press conference and shared their interpretations of their respective roles.
Jiu’er, a character in The Red Sorghum, is a representative of the Chinese women who awakened and struggled for their own fates in the 20th century. She is a distinct symbol of shaking off feudal shackles with wild vitality. This role will be portrayed by singer SONG Yuanming and WU Liere. Tenors GUO Zizhao and WANG Chong will play YU Zhan’ao by giving a vivid interpretation of this heroic bandit’s intractable nature and chivalrous deeds. NCPA resident singers WANG Hexiang and ZHANG Yang will act the role of liquor maker LIU Luohan. Sopranos ZHAO Lili, ZHANG Wenqin and GUO Chen will act as Fengxian, an ill-fated beauty living in troubled times. Additionally, LI Ao and CHAI Jin will play DAI Laosan, who is greedy and snobbish but dies for justice in the end. ZHU He and LI Tinglei will play Staff Officer REN, a liaison for the Eighth Route Army. LIANG Yufeng and XIE Xinyu will portray SHAN Bianlang, Manager of the Juyuan Distillery. YANG Guangmeng and CHEN Yi’ang will act the roles of Interpreter and Japanese Military Officer, two villains.
The cast is now in intensive rehearsals. The audience will soon hear the most passionate cry for life from the sorghum field - it is a heroic song written in the flesh and blood of the Chinese people.
