''Madame White Snake'' is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

with music by

Zhou Long Zhou Long (; born July 8, 1953) is a Chinese American composer. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Biography Zhou Long was born in Beijing, China. Born into an artistic family, he began studying piano from an early age. Due to the artist ...

and libretto by Cerise Lim Jacobs, published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. Awarded the 2011

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted ...

, it was premiered on Feb. 26, 2010, by Opera Boston at the

Cutler Majestic Theatre The Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, is a 1903 Beaux Arts style theater, designed by the architect John Galen Howard. Originally built for theatre, it was one of three theaters commissioned in Boston by Ebe ...

. It is based on the

Legend of the White Snake The Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese legend. It has since been presented in a number of major Chinese operas, films, and television series. The earliest attempt to fictionalize the story in printed form appears to be ''The White Maiden ...

and was created by Jacobs as a gift to her now late husband. The Pulitzer Committee described the opera as, "a deeply expressive opera that draws on a Chinese folk tale to blend the musical traditions of the East and the West."Brown, Joel (April 19, 2011).
Opera Boston production wins Pulitzer
, ''Boston.com''. Zhou stated, "I have been working very hard to blend the East and the West for years." The opera was performed, in English, in Beijing in October 2010. In China Zhou's 2010 English-language opera shares the same title as the traditional Beijing opera version, ''

'', ''Báishézhuàn'', but is distinguished by the term "''

geju Chinese contemporary classical opera (Chinese: 当今古典歌剧; ''dāngjīn gŭdiăn gējù''; "contemporary classical opera") is a musical art form drawing on western opera traditions - distinct from modern developments of traditional Chinese o ...

''" (Western opera) rather than "'' jingju''" (Beijing opera). Jacobs' first libretto and Zhou's first opera, it was the first opera commissioned by Opera Boston, co-commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation. Jacobs is a Chinese-American retired lawyer and Zhou is a Chinese-American composer. "Giving voice to sweeping

melodies A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinati ...

worthy of Puccini without sounding imitative, and employing such vocal effects as bent pitches, slides and

Sprechstimme (, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice") are expressionist vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, ''Sprechgesang'' is directly related to the operatic ''recitative'' manner of singing (in which ...

to suggest the unique idiom of

Peking Opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

, houwove both aesthetics into a unique whole, creating a vivid and freestanding musical world of his own."(18 April 2011).
Zhou Long's Madame White Snake Awarded 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music
, ''OperaNews.com''. *Director: Robert Woodruff *Conductor: Gil Rose *Xiao Ching: Michael Maniaci *Madame White Snake: Ying Huang *Abbot Fahai: Dong-Jian Gong *Xu Xian: Peter Tantsits

Sources

External links

*
http://madamewhitesnake.org/
'.
The Birth of Madame White Snake
, ''YouTube.com''.
Ying Huang Ken Noda - Long Madame White Snake - Awakening Aria
, ''YouTube.com''. {{Authority control 2010 operas English-language operas Operas Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning works Works based on the Legend of the White Snake