Another Imitation Gone Wrong
Yesterday, I went and attended my first opera in China, and not only that, the one my friend and I picked, Xi Shi, was marketed as the first Western Chinese opera - that’s to say, it’s an opera purely produced in China - it’s sung in Chinese, about an old Chinese legend, and done completely in the Western opera tradition.
So how does this “landmark masterpiece” stack up? To put it charitably, it was an interesting and educational experience. To put it bluntly, it was pretty bad.
There are some aspects of the opera that were done exceedingly well, like costume and set design, but unfortunately the libretto, script, and music were somewhere between underwhelming and exceedingly stupid. And it wasn’t just me - the audience all around me were either yawning at the excruciatingly slow plot and dull music (a few people walked out) or were laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of the “twists.”
So what was wrong with the opera? Well, the music just wasn’t any good, really. Granted, this is composer Lei Lei’s first opera, and I’m not terribly familiar with her background (I know she scored quite a few famous Chinese TV series), but I’m pretty sure she 1) doesn’t have an orchestral training or background and 2) has completely misunderstood Western opera.
Not that I’m an opera buff, but I do know that you can crudely divide the songs in an opera into two categories: recitative (where the singer sings like she’s talking) and aria (full blown songs with soaring memorable melodies). Most operas mix these two types of music for variety, but Xi Shi was basically one giant recitative rant.
Which begs the question, is that what Lei Lei thinks all there is to opera? This is surprising and ironic because the Chinese place a very high emphasis on melody, so was Lei Lei’s intention to Westernize by de-melodicizing (pretty sure this isn’t a word)? I’m inclined to think along these lines because also notably absent from this opera, any Chinese musical influence. Sure, there were a few melodic fragments that sounded vaguely oriental and a couple of pieces that featured Chinese flute in spectacularly underwhelming fashion, but you would think if you were creating a unique Western Chinese Opera, you’d want the music to take advantage of the situation and opportunity.
And then there’s the issue of the use of orchestra - it wasn’t egregiously bad, but it was somewhere between bad and mediocre. Talking to some non-musician audience members in between breaks and after the show, I could tell that they felt something was missing in the orchestra - that it didn’t feel as powerful as it could’ve been and that it somehow was able to move people or convey the emotions it meant to.
So how did it happen that a production this important could’ve turned out so underwhelming (it’s probably the worst opera I’ve seen)? A lady sitting in the audience next to me just so happened to be a journalist, and she told me that a few days ago, the composer and the librettist came under some harsh fire in a newspaper column. The criticism was that the Chinese government handpicked for those positions based on cozy relationships rather than merit. Not surprising, since I’d say the result speaks for itself.
All this to say, Xi Shi was a rather disappointing missed opportunity. Better luck next time, China.
