The Peony Pavilion
The Peony Pavilion (Chinese: 牡丹亭; pinyin: Mǔdān tíng; Wade–Giles: Mu-tan t'ing), also named The Return of Soul at the Peony Pavilion, is a romantic tragicomedy play written by dramatist Tang Xianzu in 1598. The plot was drawn from the short story Du Liniang Revives For Love and depicts a love story between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei that overcomes all difficulties. Tang's play diverges from the short story in that it integrates elements of the Ming dynasty, despite being set in the Southern Song.
The play was originally written for staging as Kunqu opera, one of the genres of traditional Chinese theatre arts. It was first performed in 1598 at the Pavilion of Prince Teng. Its author, Tang Xianzu, was one of the greatest dramatists and writers of the Ming dynasty, and The Peony Pavilion can be regarded as the most successful masterpiece of his life. It is also one of the dramas in Tang's famous collection Linchuan si meng (The Four Dreams in the Jade Tea Hall), along with Zichai Ji (The Purple Hairpin), Nanke Ji (A Dream Under the Southern Bough) and Handan Ji (The Handan Dream). Both the play and its dramatist get a high reputation on Chinese and international stages, and the study of Tang Xianzu has become a popular subject today.
The play has a total of 55 scenes, which can run for more than 22 hours on stage.[1][2]
Du Liniang is a sixteen-year-old young lady, daughter of Du Bao. The play's female protagonist.
Liu Mengmei is a young scholar, Du Liniang's lover. The play's male protagonist.
Du Bao is a court official, father of Du Liniang.
Chunxiang is a maid to Du Liniang.
Chen Zuiliang is a Confucian follower, who failed imperial examinations for fifteen times in his life, and later became Du Liniang's tutor.
Sister Stone is the pivotal role in Du Liniang's revival and facilitates this young couple's happy union in the end.
There are around 160 characters in the play, with 30 main characters,[2] including:
In 2012, an outdoor production of galleries presented The Peony Pavilion in a compact seventy-minute version developed and directed by celebrated composer Tan Dun with choreography by Huang Doudou, one of China's most prominent dancers, in the Met's Astor Court, the courtyard modeled on a seventeenth-century garden.[3]
Metropolitan Museum
In 2012, the China Arts & Entertainment Group, a creative enterprise under the administration of the Ministry of Culture for the People's Republic of China, announced the United States premiere of a new dance drama production of The Peony Pavilion by China Jinling Dance Company of Nanjing would be performed at the David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, for four performances in early January.
In June 2008, the Suzhou Kunqu Opera company performed The Peony Pavilion at , London, the UK premiere. It was presented in 3 parts on consecutive evenings, each lasting 3 hours, though still much shorter than the original 20 hours.[4]
Sadler's Wells
In May 2008, the premièred a two-scene ballet adaptation of The Peony Pavilion in Beijing. This production was rewritten and directed by Li Liuyi, choreographed by Fei Bo, and the music was composed by Guo Wenjing. It also attended Lincoln Center Festival in 2008, at David H. Koch Theater, and Edinburgh International Festival in August 2011.[5]
National Ballet of China
The Imperial Granary's production The Peony Pavilion in Beijing, directed by Kunqu Opera master Wang Shiyu and scenography by the renowned Lin Zhaohua, was a permanent residency show for about 5 years since its premiere in 2007.
In 2004, 's youth edition of The Peony Pavilion aims to rejuvenate the traditional staging. Pai, a Chinese scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his colleagues - scholars and performers, some brought back from retirement - spent five months editing Tang's script. Working out of the Jiangsu Suzhou Kunqu Theater, the group condensed and adapted the original fifty-five scenes to twenty-seven scenes, and twenty hours of performance time to nine. Bai, who had chosen The Peony Pavilion because of its universal message of love, hoped that his rendition would attract youth to Kunqu. In fact, in its tour of China's top universities, the show was marketed as the Youth Edition of Peony Pavilion.[1] (The production also toured in Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, seven cities in mainland China, and the Zellerbach Theater in Berkeley, California.) According to Bai, the goal of this youth-oriented production was to "give new life to the art form, cultivate a new generation of Kunqu aficionados, and offer respect to playwright Tang and all the master artists that came before."[2] His production of The Peony Pavilion was his way of doing so. Pai Hsien-yung has also used The Peony Pavilion as inspiration for a short story and a television script.
Pai Hsien-yung
Recent adaptations of The Peony Pavilion and allusions in popular music have revived interest in Kunqu, an art form that had been in danger of disappearing into obscurity. In 2001, proclaimed Kunqu as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity," yet the secrets of that heritage were kept by only a few aging masters in even fewer schools and institutions.
UNESCO
In 1999, produced a 20-hour version of The Peony Pavilion, directed by Chen and starring Qian Yi as Du Liniang. This 20-hour version was perhaps the first full-length staging in 300 years. Lincoln Center's version toured extensively, including New York, Paris, Milan, Singapore, Caen, Charleston, Aarhus, Berlin, Perth, and Vienna.[3]
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
In 1998, an experimental or “avant-garde” production of The Peony Pavilion composed by , directed by Peter Sellars, and performed by Kun Opera Troupe, premiered in Vienna and travelled to London, Roma, Paris, and Berkeley later. Also, a CD recording of this opera was released entitled "Bitter Love".
Tan Dun
The earliest western version of The Peony Pavilion is in German - An selected translation of and an introduction to The Peony Pavilion, which published in an article China' s Love Stories, written by (Hsu Dau-lin) in 1929.[6]
Xu Daolin
A complete German translation of The Peony Pavilion, translated by , was published by Lacherre Publishing House in Zurich and Leipzig in 1937.[7]
Vincenz Hundhausen
A France translation of the scene "A Surprising Dream" was contained in An Anthology of Chinese Poems and Essays, published by the Delagraphe Publishing House in 1933.
The latest complete French translation of The Peony Pavilion, translated by , was published in 2000.
Andre Levy
A selected translation in Russian by L. N. Menshkov in Oriental Classic Drama: India, China and Japan in 1976.
Main complete translations in English:
the popular Taiwanese American music artist, referenced The Peony Pavilion in his song "Beside the Plum Blossoms" (在梅邊) on his album Heroes of Earth, which drew heavily from Beijing Opera and Kunqu inspiration.[8] Lee-Hom sang and rapped over traditional Kunqu melodies blended with hip-hop beats. The music video features the artist, in modern clothes, superimposed on animated scenes. The animation depicts thematic and stylistic elements of The Peony Pavilion as well as hip-hop imagery: a break dancer does tricks atop a pavilion and pink peonies turn into speakers. A performer dressed in Kunqu costume plays the role of Liu in the music video, often singing with the Kunqu technique next to Lee-Hom. The artist quotes lines from The Peony Pavilion and entreats his lover, "Let me love you…in the classical style."[9] The lyrics reveal a longing to return to the way love was portrayed in the drama. In this way, Lee-Hom draws visual and thematic inspiration from The Peony Pavilion in his song, signaling its relevance in contemporary popular culture.
Leehom Wang
The Chinese indie band Carrchy use The Peony Pavilion as inspiration for their lyrics. The two young members of Carrchy, lyricist Keli and producer Fly, share an affinity for ancient Chinese opera and drama, an interest that appears prominently in their work. Borrowing some of the original text, Carrchy alludes to The Peony Pavilion in their song "Romantic Dream in the Garden" (遊園驚夢).[11] The band uses Tang's lyrics and story to create the dual sensations of a lush and sensual spring and sorrow upon awakening from the dream. These Ming dynasty era-inspired lyrics play over thoroughly modern music.
[10]
In the Jiangsu Pavilion at the , a 13-minute short section from The Peony Pavilion produced by the Kunqu Opera Department of the Jiangsu Performing Art Group Co., Ltd. filmed in high definition was presented for the audience. Luo Chenxue and Zhang Zhengyao, young outstanding Kunqu Opera performers from Jiangsu province, play the leading roles in this film. By combining the traditional Kunqu performing art and modern video art techniques, a stage of poetic and simplified scenes is presented.[12]
Shanghai 2010 World Expo
The Peach Blossom Fan
Kunqu
Owen, Stephen, "Tang Xian-zu, Peony Pavilion: Selected Acts," in Stephen Owen, ed. An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: , 1997. p. 880-906 (Archive).
W. W. Norton
Swatek, Catherine Crutchfield. Peony Pavilion Onstage : Four Centuries in the Career of a Chinese Drama. Center for Chinese Studies Publications, The University of Michigan, 2002.
John C.Y. Wang. "MULTIFLORATE SPLENDOUR" - A COMMENTARY ON THREE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF SCENE 10 OF "THE PEONY PAVILION", Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol.46(1), 2013, pp. 1–33.
Tan Xianzu. Library of Chinese Classics - The Peony Pavilion. Translated by Wang Rongpei, Human People's Publishing House and Foreign Language Press, 2000.
Volpp, Sophie. Worldly Stage : Theatricality in Seventeenth-century China. Harvard University Press, 2011.
Tina Lu. Persons, Roles and Minds: Identity in Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan. Stanford University Press, 2002.
Archive footage of The Peony Pavilion in rehearsal at Jacob's Pillow in 1999
Jeff Lunden. . NPR. 30th Nov. 2012.
The Peony Pavilion: A Vivid Dream In A Garden
Sadler's Wells Theatre.
National Ballet of China The Peony Pavilion.
. Outdoor performance at Metropolitan Museum.
The Peony Pavilion
The Peony Pavilion at the Imperial Granary.
Andrew Lam. .