''Madame White Snake'' is an
opera with music by
Zhou Long and
libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
by Cerise Lim Jacobs, published by
Oxford University Press. Awarded the 2011
Pulitzer Prize for Music, it was premiered on Feb. 26, 2010, by Opera Boston at the
Cutler Majestic Theatre. It is based on the
Legend of the White Snake 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
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 ...
version, ''
Legend of the White Snake'', ''Báishézhuàn'', but is distinguished by the term "''
geju''" (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
The Beijing Music Festival (BMF) is an annual music festival held in Beijing which according to Chinaculture.org has become one of the most well-known musical events in the world, drawing international attention. According to Chinaculture.org t ...
Arts Foundation. Jacobs is a Chinese-American retired lawyer and Zhou is a Chinese-American composer. "Giving voice to sweeping
melodies worthy of
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...
without sounding imitative, and employing such vocal effects as
bent pitches,
slides and
Sprechstimme to suggest the unique idiom of
Peking Opera,
hou
Hou or HOU may refer to:
* -hou, a place-name element
* Hou (surname)
* Hou (currency) (Chinese: ), a unit of currency in Greater China
* Hou (Odder Municipality), a town in Denmark
* Hou (title) (Chinese: ), a title in ancient China
* Denglong (m ...
wove 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 Gil Rose is the founder and conductor of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), founder and General-Artistic Director of Odyssey Opera, Artistic Director of Monadnock Music Festival, Professor of Practice at Northeastern University, and Execu ...
*Xiao Ching:
Michael Maniaci
Michael Maniaci (born May 3, 1976) is an American opera singer. Possessing a male soprano voice, Maniaci is noted for his claim to be able to sing into the upper soprano range without resorting to falsetto, an otherwise common phonation for me ...
*Madame White Snake:
Ying Huang
*Abbot Fahai:
Dong-Jian Gong
*Xu Xian:
Peter Tantsits
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
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