The Operetta of Kunshan: Kunqu (#136; Topic I)

A good friend and fellow World Bank retiree (and a well-known philathropist to boot) gave my wife and me two VIP tickets to the Society of Kunqu Arts's 2006 performance, Sunday evening, May 28. I was first exposed to Kunqu -- a performing-arts innovation by the literati of Kunshan (near Suzhou) during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) -- a decade ago. Kunqu combines (1) recitation with (2) singing, accompanied by (3) instrumental music and (4) acrobatic display, complete with (5) libretto, (6) in a unified stage performance. Though each of the first four art forms had their separate existence, some as early as the third century BCE, their integrated presentation via a unifying libretto was a revolutionary innovation -- the birth of the operetta. Its immediate success was due, undoubtedly, to the literati-prepared libretto, at once educational and entertaining, as well as elegant. Each libretto's story line is mostly a mixture of history and fiction (not unlike, say, the Da Vinci Code), and the phraseology is undeniably elegant (worthy of scholars' participation). When attending a Kunqu performance, I invariably try to sit close to the subtitle screen -- its biligual rendition of words spoken or sung allows me to learn some archaic Chinese words and appreciate the beauty of fluent translation. Saturday's performance was no exception -- and with VIP tickets, it was easy. Four segments from the repertoire were performed. One, Dreamland Revisited, a solo performance of a maid seeking, in vain, of meeting a young man whom she first encountered in a garden a while ago -- the focus was on the maid's dreamy demeanour. Two, The Lioness's Roar, on a young wife's commanding her husband to knell before a pond to atone for his transgression, and on her being forced to invite a well-known scholar (who played host to the husband the evening before and was partly responsible for his transgression, if any [the husband did not acknowledge], who came to visit unexpectedly and attempted to intercede unadvisedly) to leave -- the emphasis was on the wife's many moods and her husband's reluctant cooperation; both were played by national-level performers from China in their master-class guest appearance. Three, another solo performance, based on a famous historical novel covering the final years of the Northern Sung dynasty (960-1127), focusing on acrobatics by a young army officer in exile. Four, Princess Floret, based on a true story in the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644), on a chance meeting between a commoner and a princess, on the princess's falling in love, and on her giving the commoner her sword as a token of her love -- the focus was again on the pair's changing mood, also played by the two guest performers. All in all, it was a most enjoyable evening, accompanied by a six-member orchestra playing beautiful traditional Chinese musical instruments. A flyer I received on the way out suggests that another Kunqu performance will be mounted, on August 4-5, at the Smithsonian Institution's Sackler Gallery. I hope to be in town to see it again.