A New Cantonese Opera Tempestuous Love

Yu Youwei (also known as ‘Yu Xuanji’) comes from a literary family that has lost its fortune.  She admires her teacher Wen Tingyun for his scholastic gift, but due to their great disparity in age, they cannot marry.

Later Xuanji marries Li Yi, but it is after the wedding that she discovers that he already has a wife.  Li Yi sends her to live at the Xianyi Taoist Nunnery, but his wife wreaks havoc there, ending in Xuanji’s favourite maid being killed.  She cries as she walks in the snow, and sees an abandoned little girl called Luqiao...

‘It’s easy to get a priceless treasure, but hard to find a true lover.  You’ll find someone as fine as Song Yu, so why lament over the loss of Wang Chang?’ – Yu Xuanji

Ten years have passed.  Xuanji asks Luqiao to invite the well-known musician, Chen Wei, to a party of wine and song with friends.  Lady Liu, wife of a senior minister, makes a scene.  The chivalrous Chen protects Xuanji, and the arrival of Wen Tingyun brings relief.

One day, Xuanji falls ill and Luqiao is too languid to play the lute.  Chen Wei comes to visit Xuanji, and discerns her illness as one of lovesickness.  Chen stays for the night, and their affair is accidentally witnessed by Luqiao.

Xuanji teaches Luqiao the first lesson on sex, and the sensual awakening takes Luqiao into real womanhood.  Wen Tingyun cannot bear to see Xuanji’s propensity to wallow in sensual pleasures, and proposes to marry her, but she declines.

In a ceremony marking her fifteenth birthday, the nubile Luqiao performs a dance much to the guests’ applause.  Xuanji suddenly feels she has passed her prime and is saddened.

Luqiao and Chen Wei become lovers and their tryst is found out by Xuanji.  She kills the couple and discovers that...

‘Beautiful flowers thrive best inside a palace, and verdant leaves cannot be tainted by the roadside dust.’ -Yu Xuanji

Loong Koon-tin as Chen Wei

Nam Fung as Yu Xuanji

Tse Hue-ying as Luqiao

Yuen Siu-fai as Wen Tingyun

Liu Kwok-sum as Li Shangyin

Lai Yiu-wai (23-24/9)/ Wan Yuk-yu (6/10) as Li Yi

Running time of each performance is approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes including an intermission of 15 minutes.

Lyrics and dialogue with Chinese and English surtitles

Information provided by the arts group

This is a story that is anything but ordinary.

An ordinary girl meets an extraordinary woman.  Both have had extraordinary experiences, and this leads to a relationship that is again, out of the ordinary.

‘You’ll find someone as fine as Song Yu, so why lament over the loss of Wang Chang?’- Yu Xuanji

Yu Xuanji, gorgeous, forthright-in-love but ill-starred, who repeatedly engaged herself with the wrong men, met orphan girl Luqiao and fell for her purity and loveliness.  This established her as a pioneer of women’s rights, free love and even lesbianism in Tang Dynasty, an age of unrestrained abandon.

‘It’s easy to get a priceless treasure, but hard to find a true lover.’ - Yu Xuanji

Despite being once a courtesan, she was a famous poetess of her time.  With her flair and talent, she would have beaten the men hands down in the civil service examination.

Unfortunately she was born the wrong sex and perhaps at the wrong time.  Her first love was her teacher Wen Tingyun, but due to their great disparity in age, the renowned poet deemed himself too old to marry her.  She later married Li Yi the top scholar, who turned out to already have a wife.

The male protagonist of the play here, Chen Wei, is ironically much younger than Xuanji.  Although she admires this talented and proud man, she lacks the courage to fall in love again.  This character appears only in unofficial historical accounts and is not as famous as the poets Li Shangyin and Wen Tingyun, he is nevertheless the most crucial link between Xuanji and Luqiao in the play.

The idea of the production came from Ms Nam Fung, a seasoned Cantonese Opera artist and my respected senior.  When she expressed her wish for me to write the libretto based on the novel Yu Xuanji by Namkung Bok and the movie An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty starring Patricia Ha, with its focus on Yu Xuanji and Luqiao, I was euphoric yet worried – I was worried I would not be up to the task of writing the script and interpreting the characters.

The treatment of sexual elements in the libretto was the hardest.  Chinese traditional opera is by far on the reserved side, and is subtle, refined, and less open than cinema.  But thanks to the breadth and depth of Chinese literature, many subtle yet sensual verses, though devoid of explicit elements, provide infinite room for eroticism and imagination.  In this play, I have borrowed from Kunqu Opera Stealing a Glance at the Pool in The Palace of Eternal Life to depict the love scene as witnessed by Luqiao, which is intense and yet subtle.

So, on writing the three love affairs, the one between Yu Xuanji and Chen Wei is sizzling hot and sensual.  As to Xuanji’s initiation lesson for Luqiao, it is conducted in good faith but inadvertently lights up the fire of lesbian love.  The affair between Luqiao and Chen Wei would have to be distinct from previous treatments: Luqiao must be innocuous and yet spontaneous – to act the part of an assiduous student who is eager to put to use what she has learned.

I thank those around me for their unconditional support: first, to my husband Ko Yun-hung, music designer and leader for the play.  To my amusement, he does not find me ‘depraved’, but rather continues to play the role of a faithful partner in improving and appreciating everything that has to do with the libretto.  I thank seasoned Cantonese Opera artist and my frequent partner on stage, Loong Koon-tin, for his trust and support for my script writing and valuable advice.  There is also Director Shi Jihua, Stylised Movements Designers Wang Zhiquan and Wang Lei, my esteemed senior colleagues in Cantonese Opera Yuen Siu-fai and Liu Kwok-sum, among others, whom I would like to thank.  There are many more who I cannot enumerate in this coverage who have also made tremendous contributions to this production on and off-stage.  But most of all, I thank Ms Nam Fung for her trust in me and handing me this task to unravel this favourite topic of hers.

When you watch this Cantonese Opera production, please try not to recall Tong Tik-sang’s A Buddhist Recluse for Fourteen Years.  They are two different productions.  Just bear in mind that this Yu Xuanji is not that Xuanji, and this Luqiao is not that Luqiao.

Dianna Tse Hue-ying

During the hot summer month of July 2019

Production Group: Hong Kong Xiqu Troupe

Artistic Director, Music Designer and Leader: Ko Yun-hung

Artistic Instructor: Loong Koon-tin

Artistic Advisor: Yuen Siu-fai

Playwright: Tse Hue-ying

Director: Shi Jihua

Stylised Movements Designer: Wang Zhiquan/Wang Lei

Martial Arts Instructor: Hon Yin-ming

Percussion Designer and Leader: Ko Yun-kuen

Choreography: Chung Kit-sum

Literary Advisor: Chow Sik-fuk

Coordinator and Manager: Ko Tsz-mei

Lighting Designer: To Wing-sum

Stage Manager: Ko Man-him (23/9, 6/10) / Ding Yat-yuet (24/9)

Set: Kwong Hing Stage Scene Production Company

Costume and Props: Ngai Sing Company

Sound Advisor: Ng Hoi-ling

General Affairs: Lau Sze-wan, Chen Kin-yat

Surtitles Compilation: Poon Sze-man

Leaflet Information and Surtitles Translation: KCL Language Consultancy Limited

A New Cantonese Opera Tempestuous Love

DATE

VENUE

PRICE

23.09.2019 (Mon) - 24.09.2019 (Tue)
19:30

Theatre, Ko Shan Theatre

$380, $280, $200, $120

BUY NOW

06.10.2019 (Sun)
19:30

Auditorium, Yuen Long Theatre

$340, $220, $120

BUY NOW

DATE

23.09.2019 (Mon) - 24.09.2019 (Tue)
19:30

VENUE

Theatre, Ko Shan Theatre

PRICE

$380, $280, $200, $120

BUY NOW

DATE

06.10.2019 (Sun)
19:30

VENUE

Auditorium, Yuen Long Theatre

PRICE

$340, $220, $120

BUY NOW

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