Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Music by Huang Ruo · libretto by Candace Chong Mui Ngam
Dr. Sun Yat-sen (Chinese: 中山逸仙; pinyin: Zhōngshān Yìxiān) is a 2011 Chinese-language western-style opera in three acts by the New York-based American composer Huang Ruo who was born in China and is a graduate of Oberlin College's Conservatory as well as the Juilliard School of Music. The libretto was written by established playwright and translator Candace Mui-ngam Chong. It is her first opera libretto. The action of the opera focuses not on Sun's political life, but rather, it is a love story involving his second wife Soong Ching-Ling, a revered figure in modern Chinese history who became vice-president of the People's Republic of China until she died in 1981.
Writer Lindsley Miyoshi quotes the composer's description of the opera as being "about four kinds of love—between husband and wife or between lovers, friendship, between parents and children, love of country" and he continues by noting that "what I love about opera is character building", describing the technique as "dimensionalism", while she states that the work "dramatizes what happens when these loves conflict". Originally conceived by Opera Hong Kong (a company founded in 2003 under the artistic direction of tenor Warren Mok) and commissioned by the Hong Kong government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the opera company, the work was also planned in collaboration with New York City Opera's VOX Contemporary American Opera Lab annual program of new American works in progress. For Huang Ruo, the opera became the means of celebrating the 100th anniversary of Sun Yat-sen being elected as provisional president of the new Republic of China (an office he held from 1 January 1912) and which was the culmination of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the revolution which ended 2,000 years of Imperial rule when Emperor Puyi, known as the Last Emperor of China, abdicated on 12 February 1912. In terms of the music, Santa Fe Opera's general director, Charles MacKay, who chose to present the North American premiere in July 2014, has stated that he characterizes Huang Ruo's style as "a really original and striking voice", while adding that he sees the opera as "a kind of Chinese bel canto.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Dr. Sun Yat-sen (opera)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Huang Ruo (黃若, born 1976) is a Chinese-born composer, pianist and vocalist who now lives in the United States.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Huang Ruo", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Huang Ruo
- An American Soldier (2014)