“Farewell My Concubine” The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is in the midst of presenting some golden performances from their Met Live series. One of their many fabulous offerings was the Shanghai Peking Opera company performing “Farewell My Concubine” which unfolded in charming Astor Court. According to Director Sherwood Hu, “it is modeled after a Ming-era scholar’s garden” and was indeed the perfect setting for this rich story to be presented to an intimate audience of about eighty people. What the MET can do for such an evening is unlike most venues, since antiquities treasures abound from the ancient Chinese landscape; by default, a peripheral pleasure for the imagination ensues. The museum offers holistic features to the experience the opera brings to the story which takes one to another place and time. They currently have rare costumes from the Forbidden City from The Imperil Court on view as well a collection of top notch ancient relics.
There, in this glowing garden of delight, the audience experienced superb performances by all the actors and musicians, embellished by striking vivid costuming, dazzling acrobatics, and highly skilled execution of the ancient arts unique voice and mime, broadly conveying the bigness of the historic event that took place sometime in 202 B.C.
The opera takes place after the fall of the Qin dynasty when Xiang Yu battled for a united China against Liu Bang, who would become the architect of the Han Dynasty. In the story, Liu Bang surrounds the tent of Xiang Yu and with imminent danger awaiting them, his favorite concubine consort, Lady Yu, begs for his sword so she may alleviate his worry for her well-being by taking her own life.
“Farewell My Concubine” Metropolitan Museum of Art
Shi Yihong’s portrayal of Lady Yu kept the audience intensely engaged. Her skilled sword dance was effortlessly accomplished. Beside her Shang Changrong as Xiang Xu commanded the stage with his fixed grimaced masked face and elongated robust reactions. It was a very well done evening directed by Sherwood Hu.
Chinese opera is broad, highly stylized, and dramatic; compelling us to step outside our Western standards of opera, hence venturing to the mysterious ancient Asian mindset, where the unexpected beckons us to a see a different way to look at performance, dance, music, and costume. It is a marvelous art form and I hope to see more of it coming this way.