The First Emperor, created by
composer Tan Dun and directed by Zhang Yimou, premieres at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York in December.
I'm glad I had not seen Tan Dun's new opera The First
Emperor when I wrote about its critical feedback and the
composer's defense ("How the West was won or not", January
12, 2007). It would have been difficult not to bring my own
feelings into it.
The one I did catch later on was a recent high-definition
transmission into theaters of the Metropolitan Opera performance on
January 13. And a technical glitch skipped some 15 minutes over the
end of Act I.
This Emperor is not perfect, but no way is it a total flop. The
melding of Chinese musical elements enriched the expressiveness of
the essentially Western art form, in which Tan's work is rooted.
The instrumental part is especially colorful, with tinges of
Chinese sounds seeping into the bones.
Strangely, it is the role of the Yin Yang Master that I found
has failed to be "the eye of the dragon", so to speak, as I had
expected. The voice was weak, and the role, as a variation of the
Greek chorus, was somewhat imposed on the palette.
The big arias and choruses, with melodic lines and fetching
accompaniment, were quite rewarding. Several of them have the
potential to turn into hum-able numbers of a standard repertory. It
is the duets that failed to click with me. Although Tan had done
away with recitatives, singing for the sake of exposition, no
matter how dramatic the vocal lines are written, just feel weird to
a modern ear. It's a problem with all contemporary operas, not just
this one.
But when the characters begin to emote, Tan did not disappoint.
As a matter of fact, the long passages of singing are mostly
brilliant, at least to my taste. And I bet the subtle effects,
which he added with such ingenuity, would be much effective if
recorded in a studio with the New Age-like sounds better
balanced.
The libretto, written by Ha Jin and Tan Dun, takes a character
with stark moral contrast and imbues him with ambivalence. Here
Emperor Qin is not simply a tyrant or a unifier of China, but both.
His inner struggles may not be historically accurate, but
psychologically convincing. What's more, many of the details have
such relevance that they may resonate more than the authors intend.
The second part, with emphasis on recounting rather than playing
out the plot, is even better than the linear narration in Act
I.
The singers were uniformly stellar, tackling the Eastern sounds
with gusto and authenticity. Placido Domingo brought more humanness
to the role, which most Chinese abhor as a ruthless despot, and
portrayed him most of all as a father.
You have to give credit to Zhang Yimou and his team because the
visual part almost stole spotlight from the production.
The partition of the stage with numerous blocks created such
infinite possibilities that it turned into the Great Wall, the
royal palace or other settings with just the right balance of
abstractness and reality.
It is more tastefully artful than Zhang's previous operatic
outing in Turandot, or any of his other stage productions, yet
still retains his signature spectacle.
(China Daily March 15, 2007)
