贾科莫·普契尼（Giacomo Puccini）的《图兰朵（Turandot）》和布莱特·盛（Bright Sheng）的《红楼梦》都是在中国背景下创作的两部歌剧。一个是西方戏剧家想象的中国故事，以迎合和满足西方人对东方的好奇心，另一个故事是基于中国传统文化作品，承载着中国艺术家向西方世界传播中国文化的美好期望。两种作品都表现出许多中国元素，但由于选择的主题，导演，编辑和整个创作团队的不同，存在许多差异和各自的特点。
Turandot是一部三幕歌剧，由意大利著名作曲家Giacomo Puccini根据童话改编而成。这是普契尼最伟大的作品之一，也是他一生中的最后一部作品。普契尼一生都在探索戏剧和音乐中的情感。普契尼总共只有十部歌剧，与其他作曲家相比并不算多，而且大多数都缺乏威尔第的强大创造力和歌剧的历史浓厚。但是，对爱情的热情使他的音乐与魔术和“ Turandot” Tosca紧密相连。如今，“蝴蝶夫人”和“波西米亚人”已成为世界上表现最高的歌剧（埃克特，1983年）。图兰朵向人们讲述了西方人想象的中国传奇故事。图兰朵的原著是《卡拉夫与中国公主的故事》，选自阿拉伯民间故事《一千零一日》。普契尼在世时未能完成整个剧本的创作。死后，佛朗哥·阿尔法诺（Franco Alfano）根据普契尼的选秀完成了整个比赛。这部歌剧的剧本是由西莫尼和阿米尼（Aminii）撰写的，他们指的是戈西的寓言戏剧和席勒的剧本。尽管普契尼没有直接参与剧本的编写，但他在剧情和主题方面提出了许多技巧。该剧在托斯卡尼尼的指挥下于1926年4月25日在米兰的斯卡拉歌剧院首演（Schwartz，2009）。
2016年，英文版歌剧《红楼梦》在美国旧金山战争纪念歌剧院首映，获得热烈反响。作为中国古典文学的杰作，曹雪芹创作于清代的《红楼梦》描述了封建家庭从繁华到衰落的演变，贾宝玉和林黛玉的爱情故事始终如一。令人印象深刻（Wang＆Cao，1996）。作为中国传统古典文学，画家对《红楼梦》的改编从未间断。长期以来，该故事已被改编成电影和电视剧，并以各种艺术形式在观众面前展示。但是，这是第一次把它放到西方歌剧舞台上并用英语演唱。歌剧的原始版本是在美国选择的。创作者们以中国古典文学为歌剧主题，并试图传播中国文化。
Both Turandot by Giacomo Puccini and Dream of the Red Chamber by Bright Sheng are two operas created in the context of China. One is a Chinese story imagined by Western dramatists to cater to and satisfy the Westerners’ curiosity about the East, and the other is based on Chinese traditional cultural work that carries the beautiful expectations of Chinese artists to convey Chinese culture to the Western world. Both works show a lot of Chinese elements, but there are many differences and their own respective characteristics due to the different selected themes, directors, editors and the whole creative team.Turandot is a three-act opera adapted by the famous Italian composer Giacomo Puccini according to a fairy tale. It is one of Puccini's greatest works and the last one in his life. Puccini is exploring the emotions in drama and music throughout his life. There are only ten operas in total by Puccini, not that much compared to some other composers, and most of them lack the strong creative power of Verdi and the historical thickness of the opera. However, the passion of love makes his music attach magic, and his "Turandot" Tosca. "Madame Butterfly" and "Bohemians" are now the highest performing operas in the world (Eckert,1983). Turandot tells the people a Chinese legendary story imagined by Westerners. The original work of Turandot is "The Story of Karaf and the Chinese Princess", which is selected from the Arabic Folk Tales "One Thousand and One Days". Puccini failed to complete the creation of the whole play when he was alive. After his death, Franco Alfano completed the whole play according to the draft of Puccini. The script for this opera is written by Simoni and Amini, who refers to Gosy's allegorical drama and Schiller's play script. Although Puccini did not directly participate in the writing of the script, he made many tips on the plot and theme. The play premiered at the La Scala Opera in Milan on April 25, 1926, under the direction of Toscanini (Schwartz, 2009).
In 2016, the English version of the opera "Dream of the Red Chamber" premiered at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, USA, and it received a warm response. As a masterpiece of Chinese classic literature, Cao Xueqin's "Dream of the Red Chamber", which was created in the Qing Dynasty, described the evolution of a feudal family from prosperity to decline, and the love story of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu has always been impressive (Wang& Cao,1996). As a traditional Chinese classic literature, the artist's adaptation of "Dream of the Red Chamber" has never stopped. For a long time, the story has been adapted into movies and TV series, and it is displayed in front of the audience in various art forms. However, this is the first time to put it on the stage of Western opera and sung in English. The original version of the opera was chosen in the United States. And the creators chose Chinese classic literature as the theme of opera and made an attempt to spread Chinese culture.
这两部歌剧体现了东方特色的许多元素，但由于时代的特殊背景，普契尼以西方的理解视角描绘了像图兰朵这样的东方故事，以满足当时西方对东方的强烈好奇心。歌剧《红楼梦》更恰当地传达了东方的真实故事和东方文化。
为什么那个时代的欧洲人对东方特别是中国特别感兴趣？即使在从17世纪末到18世纪末的100年中，“中国风格”也开始流行。长期以来，欧洲人一直渴望了解中国。 16世纪后，传教士前往中国。欧洲人带来的各种报道引起了欧洲人的极大兴趣。传教士美丽而富饶的中国使整个欧洲感到非常好奇。人们对模仿中国艺术和习俗的中国物品感到疯狂。其中，最适合欧洲人想象的自然是充满异国情调的中国公主。在此期间，中国公主的形象大量出现。 “一千零一日”出版时，恰逢伊朗历史上的萨法维王朝。与中国不同，波斯人显然是欧洲人更可能接触到的“东方人”。自路易十三国王开始以来，法国希望与萨法维王朝建立直接外交关系。图兰朵的故事可以说是一个好时光和一个好地方，因为故事中的中国背景迎合了法国人民对遥远中国的渴望和想象。毫不奇怪，《图兰朵》成为《一千零一日》中最受欢迎的故事。法语文本出版后，英语文本在伦敦出版。由于它非常受欢迎，因此图兰朵的故事迅速与“千日一日”分开，逐渐成为东方的独立故事。同时，中国人从波斯流向欧洲。公主开始了持续的中国化进程（Berrong，1995）。
普契尼的艺术品味从根本上是现实的。他的时代以及对社会和社会关怀的高度关注使他成为现实主义歌剧艺术的主要参与者之一。普契尼创作的目的不是描述一个历史事件，而是呈现一个戏剧性的场景。例如，彭邦鹏（Ping Pang Peng）的三位部长喝茶，绘画，画扇和回国歌曲就揭示了中国古代文人的风格。这些元素的含义也与人有关。 “图兰朵”-承载着古代西方人的逻辑和想象力，东方的文化和特征，是一部非常成功的中西方经典作品。
如前所述，作为美籍华裔作曲家的英语歌剧《红楼梦》，由圣迭戈剧院于2016年首演的《光明圣地》全球首映。作为当代中国著名作曲家，盛声已经赢得了国际认可和荣誉。他的音乐包含多种文化元素，成功地渗透和融合了中西文化。他的音乐融合了独特的中国音乐元素（例如中国民歌）和西方音乐，而没有剥夺音乐的任何原始特征和魅力（Wong，2011年）。他所建立的独特音乐世界在中西音乐之间架起了一座桥梁，西方听众可以通过这种桥梁完全感受到东方音乐的独特特征和魅力。
These two operas exemplify many elements of the oriental characteristics, but due to the specific background of the times, Puccini took his Western perspective of the understanding depicts an oriental story like Turandot to satisfy the strong Western curiosity about the East at the time. And the opera Dream of the Red Chamber conveys the true oriental story and oriental culture more aptly.Why are Europeans of that era particularly interested in the East, especially China? Even in the 100 years from the end of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century, the "Chinese style" became popular. For a long time, Europeans have been eager to understand China. After the 16th century, missionaries have traveled to China. The various reports brought about by the Europeans have aroused great interest among Europeans. The beautiful and rich China of the missionaries has made the whole of Europe extremely curious. People are crazy about the items from China, imitating Chinese art and customs. Among them, the most suitable for the Europeans to imagine, is naturally a Chinese princess full of exotic flavors. During this period, the image of the Chinese princess emerged in large numbers. When the "One Thousand and One Days" was published, it coincided with the Safavid dynasty in Iranian history. Unlike China, the Persian is obviously the "Oriental" that Europeans are more likely to reach. Since the beginning of King Louis XIII, France hopes to establish direct diplomatic relations with the Safavid dynasty. The story of Turandot can be described as having a good time and a good place since the Chinese background in the story caters to the French people's desire and imagination of distant China. Unsurprisingly, "Turandot" became the most popular story in "One Thousand and One Days". After the publication of the French text, the English text was published in London. Because it was so popular, the story of Turandot quickly separated from the "One Thousand and One Days" and gradually became an independent story of the East. At the same time, the Chinese from Persia to Europe. The princess began the process of continuous Chineseization (Berrong,1995).
Puccini's artistic taste is fundamentally realistic. His era and his great concern for society and social love make him one of the main players of realism opera art. The purpose of Puccini's creation is not to describe a historical event, but to present a dramatic scene. For example, the three ministers of Ping Pang Peng's tea drinking, painting fan, and returning home songs reveal the style of ancient Chinese literati. The meaning of these elements is also connected with people. "Turandot" - carrying the logic and imagination of the ancient Westerners, the culture and character of the East, is a very successful Chinese-Western classic.
As mentioned before, Dream of the Red Chamber, as an English-language opera by Chinese American composer, Bright Sheng world premiered in 2016 by the San Francisco Opera. As a famous contemporary Chinese composer, Bright Sheng has widely won international recognition and honor. His music contains diverse cultural elements and successfully penetrates and integrates Chinese and Western cultures. His music combines unique Chinese musical elements, such as Chinese folk songs, with Western music, without depriving any of the original features and charm of the music (Wong, 2011). The unique music world he constructed communicated a bridge between Chinese and Western music, through which, Western audiences can wholeheartedly feel the unique characteristics and charm of oriental music.
歌剧《红楼梦》的发起人是一群居住在美国的华侨。歌剧《红楼梦》的创作是由美国明尼苏达州的一群华人将中国文化传播到西方引起的。人们对居住在美国的中国人感到敬畏。尽管他们对动议之前的戏曲创作过程一无所知，但他们选择了一个好的方向，包括中国古典文学，英语唱歌和戏曲表演的主题。中国制作团队，中国演员，剧本和中国传统经典改编的故事使这部歌剧更加深入东方文化背景，并彰显东方文化特色。
Turandot是一个基于东方背景的中国公主的故事。但是，由于普契尼对中国仍然有很多无知，因此在整部戏中仍然存在许多在人物刻画和情节设置上不符合中国历史和文化的场景。相比之下，《红楼梦》赋予了舞台无与伦比的诗意，并达到了中国美学的新高度。
这出戏围绕着中国公主图兰朵。为了报仇她的祖先，图兰朵公主下令，如果一个男人能猜出她的三个谜语，她就会嫁给他，如果他猜错了，他就会死。三年后，有很多人丧生。被放逐的中国王子卡拉夫被图兰多公主的美丽所吸引。不论父亲刘尔和三位部长的反对如何，他都正确回答了所有问题。但是图兰朵不想嫁给卡拉夫，也不想找到麻烦他的方法。经过一番波折，王子终于融化了图兰朵的冷漠之心（Wilson，2005）。这部电视剧中描绘的公主非常有主见，声音很大，她的父亲作为国家的国王显得虚弱和没有思想。这与中国古代的现实情况大不相同。君主作为一个国家的国王常常雄心勃勃，并受到成千上万的人的喜爱，并且拥有一个最高的群体。尽管公主是贵族，但出于性别原因，其他人只能使用它们。做出决定。中国公主在西方仍然是一个自由和个性化的基因，这也导致该剧的情节设置可能与中国古代的现实情况不符。
普契尼（Puccini）于1924年11月去世。在此之前，墨索里尼（Mussolini）在1921年成为意大利法西斯党的领导人。 1922年，他命令“黑衫军”夺取政权。墨索里尼就任意大利内阁总理。墨索里尼曾经说普契尼加入了法西斯党，但普契尼的粉丝们认为档案中没有唱片。即使这样，也存在一些事实。普契尼曾希望墨索里尼的法西斯党能恢复民族秩序。墨索里尼于1924年任命普契尼为国会议员，并向普契尼发送了荣誉证书。普契尼没有回来。普契尼的朋友托斯卡尼尼曾经警告普契尼不要与法西斯主义合作，普契尼没有反应。由于这些原因，有人认为图兰朵的歌剧本身就有一定的帝国主义（Berrong，1995）。男主人公卡拉夫死于对残酷，不人道的图兰朵之美的绝望，无法形容和无法弥补的爱。用今天的话来说，只要外表美丽，就表现出极其原始的欲望冲动，就完全没有必要变得美丽。这种善良的人爱上坏人的冲动实际上有点奇怪。在现实政治中，它的真正动机是什么？实际上，这仅仅是图兰朵所代表的中国财富。因此，卡拉夫用一种力量说：我会赢，我会赢。有人认为，这是一种殖民欲望，占据了中国的财富。
作家黄和作曲家盛对《红楼梦》的内容进行了大量删除和改编。改编的歌剧围绕着石头和花朵的神话，两者都从天堂降落到人间。石头变成了宝玉，他是贾氏家族的被宠坏的家庭继承人，花儿成了戴玉，一个生病，富有诗意的年轻女子，在母亲去世后搬进了贾氏家族居住（Lee，2015） 。
“红楼梦”可谓是中国艺术观念和中国美学的最佳形象代言。香港书法家李百强写了《红楼梦》，《石头》，《丧葬花》的全文。在演出中，这些中文歌词字幕在歌剧舞台上首次出现。叶金田的舞蹈之美设计具有极致的精致之美，与原始小说的历史和深刻质感以及壮丽的诗歌完美契合。
The originator of the opera Dream of the Red Chamber is a group of overseas Chinese living in the United States. The creation of the opera Dream of the Red Chamber was caused by a group of Chinese in Minnesota in the United States to spread Chinese culture to the West. People are awe-inspiring to the Chinese who live in the United States. Although they did not know anything about the creative process of the opera before the motion, they chose a good direction, including the theme of Chinese classical literature, English singing and opera performances. The Chinese production team, Chinese actors and scripts and stories adapted from traditional Chinese classics have made this opera more in-depth into the oriental cultural context and highlight the oriental cultural characteristics.
Turandot is a story of a Chinese princess based on the oriental background. However, because Puccini still has a lot of ignorance about China, there are still many settings in the whole drama that do not conform to Chinese history and culture in terms of character portrayal and plot setting. What’s more, in contrast, Dream of the Red Chamber gives the stage an unparalleled poetic and reaches the new height of Chinese aesthetics.
The play revolves around the Chinese princess Turandot. In order to avenge her ancestors, Princess Turandot ordered that if a man could guess her three riddles, she would marry him, and if he guessed wrong, he would die. Three years later, there have been many people who have lost their lives. The exiled Chinese prince Karaf was attracted by the beauty of Princess Turando. And regardless of the opposition of his father, Liu Er and the three ministers, he answered all the questions right. But Turandot did not want to marry Kalaf and find a way to trouble him. After some twists and turns, the prince finally melted the indifferent heart of Turandot (Wilson,2005). The princess portrayed in this drama is very assertive and has a great voice, and her father as a king of the country appears to be weak and unconceived. This is very different from the real situation in ancient China. The monarch as a king of a country is often ambitious and loved by thousands of people, and has a supreme group. Although the princesses are nobles, they can only be used by others for gender reasons. The decision is made. The Chinese princess is still a free and individualized gene in the West, and this also leads to the plot setting of this drama may not be in line with the real situation in ancient China.
Puccini died in November 1924. Prior to this, in 1921 Mussolini became the leader of the Italian fascist party. In 1922, he commanded the "black shirt army" to seize power. Mussolini became the Italian cabinet prime minister. Mussolini once said that Puccini joined the fascist party, but Puccini’s fans argued that there were no records in the archives. Even so, there are some facts that exist. Puccini had hoped that Mussolini’s fascist party could restore the national order. Mussolini appointed Puccini as a member of parliament in 1924 and sent a certificate of honor to Puccini. Puccini did not return. Puccini's friend Toscanini once warned Puccini not to cooperate with fascism, Puccini did not react. For these reasons, some people think that Turandot's opera itself has certain imperialism (Berrong,1995). The male protagonist, Karaf, died in a desperate, indescribable and incorrigible love of the beauty of the cruel, unhuman Turandot. In today's words, it is completely unnecessary to be beautiful, as long as the appearance is beautiful, showing an extremely primitive desire impulse. The impulse of this kind of good man to fall in love with a bad person is actually a bit strange. In real politics, what is its real motivation? In fact, it is only the Chinese wealth represented by Turandot. Therefore, Karaf said with one strength: I will win, I will win. Some people think that it is a colonial desire that occupies Chinese wealth.
The writer Huang and the composer Sheng jointly made a large number of deletions and adaptations to the contents of "Dream of the Red Chamber". The adapted opera revolves around the myths of Stone and Flower, both of whom come down to earth from the heaven. The stone became Bao Yu, he was the spoiled family heir of the Jia family, and the flower became Dai Yu, a sick, poetic young woman, who moved into the Jia family to live after the death of her mother (Lee, 2015).
"Dream of the Red Chamber" can be described as the best image endorsement of Chinese artistic conception and Chinese aesthetics. Hong Kong calligrapher Li Baiqiang wrote the full text of "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Stones" and "The Funeral Flower", and during the performance, these Chinese lyrics subtitles appeared for the first time on both sides of the opera stage. Ye Jintian's dance beauty design has the ultimate exquisite beauty, which fits perfectly with the historical and profound texture of the original novels and the magnificent poetry.
在这两部歌剧中，中国传统音乐元素的运用展现了整个戏剧的东方特色。歌曲“ Jasmine”最初被称为“ Flower Tune”，已有数百年的历史。它主要分布在江苏，浙江和安徽地区。有数百个。他们的话相似，反映出浪漫的爱情，而曲调和唱歌规则则各有特点。根据钱仁康先生的《茉莉花向世界传播的第一首民歌》，“茉莉”的曲调在18世纪传入欧洲。在整个歌剧中，普契尼根据图兰朵情节的需要制作了六种茉莉花变体，其中有些非常长，有些只有几个安静的句子，而另一些则使用乐团合奏来扩大合唱以突出雄伟的色彩（杨， 2013）。
西方音乐家普遍认为，在他们的作品中使用五音阶可以反映出东方韵味。普契尼还在图兰朵创作了一些五音调的旋律，以营造中国氛围。普契尼的原作刘璞感动了许多观众，也是作曲家最喜欢的角色。普契尼通过三个咏叹调使如此小的人光芒四射。其中，“先听我说，大师”是主要节奏的咏叹调，旋律具有明显的五声风格和调节和重复现象。四音组的声音模式让人联想到精美的中国工笔画。东方女性谦虚，深情，温柔，愿意为爱而牺牲一切的形象在纸上。在整首歌曲中，我们清楚地发现了三音组的使用，这是五音中国风格的典型特征。伴奏中有明显的连续声音，这是西方音乐的典型特征。它反映了东西方音乐的相互融合。歌剧“图兰朵”的另一个经典咏叹调是“你的冷心”和“今晚没人睡”。 “您的内心冷漠”咏叹调表示，刘儿愿意为自己的爱人付出一切，甚至为自己的生命牺牲。她对主人Karaf的真诚无私的爱，愿意为所爱的人而死，以得到自己心爱的女人。 Karaf的咏叹调“今晚没人睡”是要求Karaf Turandot猜测自己身份的夜晚。音乐有点沉重，声音中有些尴尬。卡拉夫（Karaf）被公主的惊人美所吸引。对于她来说，他愿意冒险一生，因此他渴望赢得公主的爱。
此外，图兰朵包含许多五音阶，它们确实存在或由作曲家组成。普契尼（Puccini）特别喜欢在主要和次要的未成年人中使用异国音乐，这显然是因为钢琴的黑键具有易于演奏的五音音符。当他需要广泛的抒情音乐时，他还融合了一些西方风格（Sheppard，2015）。普契尼成功地运用中国音乐和五音调动机来表达“中国元素”音乐，并创作了正宗的意大利风格歌剧。在缺乏对中国音乐和中国民族风格的深刻理解的情况下，撰写如此恰当的音乐，这也是普契尼的非凡之处。
作为经典的中国作品，《红楼梦》有120章，有400多个字符（Miller，1975）。将其集中到两个小时的歌剧中几乎是不可能的。歌剧的主队在听觉，视觉，情节，人物等方面都经过精心打造，最终选择了贾宝玉，林黛玉和薛宝珍的爱情和婚姻作为主要路线，反映了盛大的兴衰。查看花园，甚至是清朝。这是这部经典作品首次以英文歌剧形式在西方舞台上展出。在表演过程中，根据故事的主线和歌剧的表演，主队还保留了原作中的七个主要人物之一：贾宝玉，林黛玉，薛宝柴，贾木，太太。王元珍和薛姨妈。通过对老和尚的整体“开箱即用”叙述者的洞察，该故事以全新的视角讲述了石头和花朵的神话，让观众感受到了梦想的美。在现实与幻想的场景之间，看到现实的冰冷欢乐与悲伤，深刻实现美与爱的永恒梦想。
歌剧设在大观园的舞台上。许多亚洲人的面孔穿着精致典雅的中国服装，开幕式是纯英语的声音，体现了浓郁的中国特色，并增加了一些西方元素。这群具有不同背景的中国艺术家成功地呈现了歌剧舞台上巨人的“红楼梦”。歌剧以“宝玉”之间的情感为主线。
In these two opera, the application of traditional Chinese music elements shows the rich oriental features of the whole drama. The song "Jasmine", originally called "Flower Tune", has a history of hundreds of years. It is mainly spread in the area of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. There are hundreds of them. Their words are similar, reflecting the romantic love, while the tune and singing rules have their own characteristics. According to Mr. Qian Renkang's "The First Folk Song to Jasmine Flower Spreading to the World", the tune of "Jasmine" was introduced to Europe in the 18th century. Throughout the opera, Puccini made six variations of Jasmine according to the needs of the Turandot plot, some of which are extremely long, some only have several quiet sentences, while others use the orchestra ensemble to enlarge the chorus to highlight the majestic (Yang, 2013).Western musicians generally believe that the use of the pentatonic scale in their works can reflect the oriental charm. Puccini also created some melody written in the five-tone scale in Turandot, in order to create a Chinese atmosphere. Liu Pu, the original role of Puccini, touched many viewers and was also the favorite character of the composer. Puccini made such a small person shine through three arias. Among them, "Listen to me, Master" is the first sigh, the aria of the major tempo, and the melody has obvious five-sound style and the phenomenon of modulating and repeating. The sound pattern of the four-tone group makes people think of a fine Chinese meticulous painting. An image of an oriental woman who is humble, affectionate, gentle, and willing to sacrifice everything for love is on paper. In the whole song, we clearly found the use of the three-tone group, which is a typical feature of the five-tone Chinese style. There is a pronounced continuous sound in the accompaniment texture, which is a typical trait of Western music. It reflects the mutual dissolution of Eastern and Western music. The other classic aria of the opera "Turandot" is "Your cold heart" and "No one sleeps tonight". "Your cold heart" aria expresses that Liu Er is willing to give everything for his beloved, even to sacrifice his life. Her sincere and unselfish love for her master, Karaf, is willing to die for the loved one to get his beloved woman. Karaf's aria "No one sleeps tonight" is the night that asked Karaf Turandot to guess his identity. The music is a bit heavy, and there is a feeling of awkwardness in the voice. Karaf is fascinated by the princess's stunning beauty. For her, he is willing to risk his life, so he is eager to win the princess's love.
In addition, Turandot contains many pentatonic scales, either they do exist or are composed by composers. Puccini particularly likes to use the major and lower minors in the creation of exotic music, which is obviously because the piano's black keys present five-tone notes that are easy to play. When he needed a broad, lyrical music, he also incorporated some Western style(Sheppard,2015). Puccini successfully used Chinese tunes and pentatonic motives to express the "Chinese elements" music, and wrote authentic Italian-style operas. In the absence of a good understanding of Chinese music and Chinese national style, writing such appropriate music, this is also Puccini's extraordinary.
As a classic Chinese work, Dream of the Red Chamber has 120 chapters and more than 400 characters (Miller, 1975). Concentrating it into a two-hour opera is almost impossible. The main team of the opera was carefully crafted in terms of hearing, vision, plot, characters, etc., and finally chose Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and Xue Baozhen's love and marriage as the main line, reflecting the rise and fall of the Grand View Garden and even the Qing Dynasty. This is the first time that this classic work has been shown on the Western stage in the form of an English version of opera. During the performance, according to the main line of the story and following the performance of the opera, the main team also retained one of the seven main characters in the original work: Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, Jia Mu, Mrs. Wang, Yuan Zhen and Xue Aunt. With an insight into the overall "out-of-the-box" narrator of the old monk, the story is told in a new perspective focusing on the myth of the stone and the flower, which let the audience feel the beauty of the dreams between the scenes of reality and illusion, and see the icy joys and sorrows of reality, and deeply realize the eternal dream of beauty and love.
The opera is set on the stage of the Grand View Garden. Many Asian faces are dressed in exquisite and elegant Chinese costumes, and the opening is a pure English vocal, which reflects the rich Chinese characteristics and adds a bit of Western elements. This group of Chinese artists with diverse backgrounds successfully presented the "Dream of the Red Chamber" of the giants in the opera stage. The opera takes the emotion between "Baoyu" as the main line and puts it under the background of political, economic and social changes at that time, showing the process of the decline of a noble family in the Qing Dynasty in China. This strategy captures the essence of the original work. Although this is a lyrical and gorgeous Western opera, it has arranged some distinct Chinese elements in the music. For example, the rhythm created by percussion instruments such as Peking Opera and Pelican in Peking Opera reflects the meaning of the various characters coming and going on the stage of life, and by letting Lin Daiyu play the ancient Chinese piano, her implicit and restrained emotions were thus reflected.
Both of these dramas show their unique oriental charm, but because of the interpretation angle and the cultural background of the main creative team, they show two different perspectives, the Chinese story in the eyes of the Westerners and the Chinese story in the eyes of the Orientals.
References
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Lee, H. (2015). A Study on Hybrid Style and Orchestration in Bright Sheng’ s Postcards, dissertation, Denton, Texas.
Miller, L. (1975). Masks of fiction in Dream of the red chamber: myth, mimesis, and persona. Journal of the American Oriental Society 99.1.
Schwartz, A. (2009). Mechanism and Tradition in Puccini's Turandot. Opera Quarterly 25.1-2, 28-50.
Sheppard, W. A. (2015). Puccini and the Music Boxes. Journal of the Royal Musical Association 140.1, 41-92.
Wang, C.C., & Cao, X. Q. (1996). Dream of the Red Chamber. English Learning 3. 750-750.
Wilson, A. (2005). Modernism and the Machine Woman in Puccini’s ‘Turandot’. Music & Letters 86.3, 432-451.
Wong, Angela On Yee. (2011). "Songs from a distant memory: A study of Bright Sheng's Four Movements for Piano Trio and "Tibetan Dance"." Dissertations & Theses - Gradworks.
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