The Savage Land (opera)

poster for the Shenzhen Youth Opera production 2016

The Savage Land (原野 Yuanye[1]) is a 1987 Chinese-language western-style opera by composer Jin Xiang[2] to a libretto by Wan Fang (万方 born 1952)[3] after her own father Cao Yu's 1937 play The Wilderness (also 原野 Yuanye). It was performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington in 1992,[4] in 1997 at the Saarländisches Staatstheater [de] in Saarbrücken under the baton of You-Sheng Lin,[5] then again in Vancouver in 1998.[6][7][8] Shenzhen Youth Opera presented Jin Xiang's work in 2016.

  1. ^ Shanghai Opera House description Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine (Chinese)
  2. ^ Barbara Mittler: "Dangerous tunes: the politics of Chinese music in Hong Kong", p. 163, 1997 "Jin Xiang studied composition at the Central Conservatory under Chen Peixun (Chan ... His opera Yuanye (The Savage Land) of 1987, depicts a dark and brutal atmosphere, a Chinese verismo that is ..."
  3. ^ Chinese American Forum 1991, p. 30 "Savage Land, by Jin Xiang, with libretto by Wan Fang, is the best opera with a Chinese libretto to be presented by a major American company. And with subtitles and soaring melodies to smash through the language barrier, it could become ..."
  4. ^ Opera Canada, vol. 33, p. 36, Canadian Opera Guild, 1992 "Stunning Savage Land Premieres in Washington ... outside China of Jin Xiang's stunningly beautiful, dramatically gripping Savage Land (libretto by Wang Fang after Cao ..."
  5. ^ "Die Ära Wagner 1994–1998", Stephan Weidauer, 1 June 2012
  6. ^ Classical Music Magazine 1997, p. 8 "Vancouver – Chinese composer Jin Xiang's Savage Land is the one novelty of Vancouver Opera's 1997–98 season, under returning general director Robert Hallam and music director David Agler. Savage Land is sung in Chinese but has ..."
  7. ^ U.S.–China Review, vol. 16, no. 1, p. 6, U.S.–China Peoples Friendship Association, 1992 "The work of a leading Chinese composer, Jin Xiang, Savage Land is a romantic tragedy set in the rural China of the 1920s. It combines Western techniques of composition with Chinese esthetics. The opera was performed by an all- ..."
  8. ^ Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, p. 420, Edward L. Davis, 2012 "Jin Xiang's style is characterized by a particular sensibility for musical colouring. His opera The Savage Land (Yuanye, 1987) features a Chinese-style verismo, reminiscent of Russian opera but at the same time permuted by distinctly Chinese ..."