Making the Ancient Past Serve the Globalized Present: A Review of Suzhou Kun Opera Theater of Jiangsu Province’s September 2012 Performances in Ann Arbor, Michigan

CHINOPERL Papers No. 31 (2012)©2012 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature MAKING THE ANCIENT PAST SERVE THE GLOBALIZED PRESENT: A REVIEW OF SUZHOU KUN OPERA THEATER OF JIANGSU PROVINCE’S SEPTEMBER 2012 PERFORMANCES IN ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN HO-CHAK LAW University of Michigan Sponsored by the Confucius Institute at the University of Michigan and the University Musical Society, a troupe representing the Suzhou Kun Opera Theater of Jiangsu Province 江蘇省蘇州崑劇院 (hereafter, Su Kun) performed in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on September 28–29, 2012. One of the most widely celebrated and welcomed of traditional Chinese opera companies in the twentiethfirst century, the two public evening performances by members of Su Kun were presented as highlight events of the 134th annual season of the University Musical Society and part of a residency that also included a lecture demonstration in the lobby of the University of Michigan Hospital and an afternoon performance for school children. Kunqu 崑曲 has been widely recognized as the most classical form of Chinese opera. It was listed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” in 2001. Expected to faithfully stage Kunqu in front of Western audiences, Su Kun planned the performances very carefully. According to a post-performance conversation with the company’s director, Cai Shaohua 蔡少華, who accompanied the performance troupe to Ann Arbor, six actors were selected for the residency. These actors were expected to perform their best so as to present Kunqu as a refined exemplar of traditional Chinese culture. Best known among the six, thanks to their featured roles as Du Liniang 杜麗娘 and Liu Mengmei 柳夢梅 in the “Young Lovers’ Edition CHINOPERL Papers No. 31 200 of The Peony Pavilion” (Qingchun ban Mudan ting 青春版牡丹亭) produced by Taiwanese-American writer Kenneth Pai (Bai Xiangong 白先勇) and Su Kun, are the wudan 五旦 (young female role) actress Shen Fengying 沈豐英 and the jinsheng 巾生 (young scholar role) actor Yu Jiulin 俞玖林. As part of their training for the “Young Lovers’” production, which premiered in 2004, the troupe brought in Kunqu maestros Zhang Jiqing 張繼青 and Wang Shiyu 汪世瑜 for their guidance. The other four actors, Shen Guofang 沈國芳, Lü Jia 呂佳, Lü Fuhai 呂福海, and Zhou Xuefeng 周雪峰, all participated in the “Young Lovers’ Edition,” but played multiple minor roles (the exception being Shen Guofang, who just played Chunxiang 春香). Among the six, Lü Fuhai, the vice-director of the troupe, is by far the oldest, while the other five are of about the same generation (Shen Fengying and Yu Jiulin, for instance, were born in 1978 and 1979, respectively). The two performances were composed of zhezi xi 折子戲 (extracted scenes) from the traditional Kunqu repertoire. The selected scenes demonstrated a preference for well-known classical works as well as the emperor-imperial consort and scholar-beauty pairing of the lead roles that play a prominent role in the Kunqu repertoire of either full-length chuanqi 傳奇 plays or the zhezi xi extracted from these plays. For the first of the two performances, the troupe performed three zhezi xi from different renowned plays: “Qintiao” 琴挑 (Zither seductions) from Gao Lian’s 高濂 (1573–1620) Yuzan ji 玉簪記 (The jade hairpin), “Huozhuo” 活捉 (Captured alive) from Xu Zichang’s 許自昌 (1578–1623) Shuihu ji 水滸記 (The water margin), and Xiaoyan 小宴 (An intimate banquet) from Hong Sheng’s 洪昇 (1645–1704) Changsheng dian 長生殿 (Palace of everlasting youth). All of them feature pairs of lovers. The second day’s performance consisted of four zhezi xi, all of which were from Tang Xianzu’s 湯顯祖 (1550–1614) masterpiece on love, Mudan ting 牡丹亭 (The peony pavilion): “Youyuan jingmeng” 游園驚夢 (Strolling in the garden and the interrupted dream), “Xunmeng” 尋夢 (Pursuing the dream), “Shihua jiaohua” 拾畫叫畫 (Retrieving the portrait and calling to the portrait), and “Yougou” 幽溝 (Rendezvous with a ghost). Instead of the inflated orchestra and the modern lighting and stage effects that typify the “Young Lovers’ Edition of The Peony Pavilion” and most other grandiose contemporary Kunqu productions (da zhizuo 大製作), the performances of both nights employed a more modest instrumental ensemble and a simpler traditional staging (bright, unmodulated lighting, LAW, Suzhou Kun Opera Theater Performances 201 for instance) with minimal use of props, following the zhezi xi performance tradition of Kunqu as a form of chamber opera. This eliminated some of the auditory and visual...