The final work of the San Francisco Opera fall season was a world premiere that turned into a sold-out sensation. Composed by Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo with a libretto by David Henry Hwang,
The Monkey King was a startling success in a sumptuously creative production. Considering that there are no romances or deaths or any of the melodramatic situations that propel most opera plots, it was a surprising triumph.
Before each performance, there was an unusually rich and insightful lecture by Sidney Chen. He started by explaining the genesis of the story, taken from an episodic 1592 Chinese novel
Journey to the West, and how the character of the Monkey King has been used over the centuries in Peking operas, plays, animated television series, modern videogames, and now a Western style opera. "This opera, by the way, only covers the first seven chapters of
Journey to the West, which is 100 chapters long."
After a contemplative opening chorus singing the Buddhist Diamond Sutra in Mandarin, the language turns to English when the Monkey King is born out of a rock in the first of a host of amazing theatrical effects. The title character is played interchangeably by a puppet, the dancer Huiwang Zhang, and the tenor Kang Wang who was extraordinary throughout. I hope the company brings him back to sing any role he desires because his voice and physicality felt boundless.
(All production photos are by Cory Weaver.)
The real major character of the opera was the chorus, who played a monkey tribe given safe haven by its new king, along with decadent courtiers in Heaven...
...and Buddhist disciples of Master Subhuti, sung beautifully by bass-baritone Jusung Gabriel Park.
After being kicked out of the religious group by his Buddhist master, who has given him the name Sun Wukong, the Monkey King goes under the sea to steal a powerful weapon from the Dragon King Ao Guang, sung authoritatively by baritone Joo Woo Kang,
The stars of the opera, however, were the production team in one of the most spectacular physical shows ever seen at the opera house. Directed by Diane Paulus, this swiftly moving production is an elaborate, monumental work created by set designer and master of puppetry Basil Twist. I had seen a couple of his small shows at the HERE Center in Manhattan over the years, but even the impressive work he did on the San Francisco Ballet's production of Prokofiev's
Cinderella didn't quite prepare me for the sheer grandeur of this creation. He was aided by Sara C. Walsh as an associate set designer, Anita Yavich as costume designer, Ayumu "Poe" Saegusa as lighting designer, and Hana S. Kim as the projection designer.
They all created genuine magic, flying us from mountaintops to the bottom of the ocean to a familiarly corrupt heaven where the Monkey King is insulted once again by human royalty treating him contemptuously. The character is a trickster, however, and in one of the most exquisite moments of stagecraft, he sets the Heavenly Horses free to roam the skies, an effect created by a small army of puppeteers.
The music by composer Huang Ruo is a complex grab-bag of styles, from minimalism to hints of other 20th century composers and even Broadway style propulsion. My only criticism is that many of the vocal lines were difficult and unwieldy for most of the singers, who all still managed to give impressive performances. It was a blessed relief when the Monkey King was finally given a lyrical aria near the finale in The Land of Bliss, and we could hear the sheer beauty of Kang Wang's voice.
The libretto by David Henry Hwang is well structured with its flashback device of the Monkey King, imprisoned under a mountain for 500 years, looking back at his life and adventures so far. These included defeating the avenging legions of Heaven, with chorister Jonathan Smucker as King of the East amusingly performing an air guitar/pipa duel with the Monkey King.
My only problem with the libretto is how flat and unpoetic much of the English is in a medium that almost demands real poetry. My friend James Parr, who is bilingual in Mandarin and English, noted that the Chinese surtitles were much more beautifully poetic than the English surtitles in both Hwang's
The Monkey King and his earlier libretto for 2016's
Dream of the Red Chamber.
Throughout this hectic, episodic tale, there are calm intervals where Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion guides The Monkey King on the road away from ego and arrogance to compassionate enlightenment. Sung gorgeously by soprano Mei Gui Zhang while floating all over the stage, she is finally joined by Buddha who grants The Monkey King freedom from his 500-year-old mountain tomb so he can begin his Journey to the West. Congratulations to everyone involved in this ambitious success.
