Synopsis

Long ago, during the construction of Heaven, a Stone was left behind and nurtured a beautiful Crimson Pearl Flower with sweet dew for 3000 years, which she repaid with a lifetime of tears. The Stone and the Flower longed to fulfill their love by living as mortals    on Earth, although they were warned against taking this path by a mysterious Taoist Monk. Ignoring his advice, they travel to Earth through a magic mirror where their destiny unfolds.

Act I

The Crimson Flower becomes Dai Yu, a brilliant young woman of fragile health, whose mother had recently passed away. She arrives at the Red Chambers, home of one of the Dynasty’s most prestigious families, the renowned Jia Clan. The family’s matriarch, Granny Jia, welcomes her granddaughter warmly, but Lady Wang, mother of the sole male heir in the family, Bao Yu, takes an immediate dislike to the newcomer. Bao Yu is transfixed by the soulful mystery of his recently arrived cousin. To counter Dai Yu’s influence on her son, Lady Wang arranges for her sister, Madame Xue, to visit, accompanied by her charming and sensuous daughter, Bao Chai. It is apparent that Lady Wang hopes to arrange a marriage for Bao Yu, with the beautiful and practical Bao Chai.  When the Jia Family receives a visit from Lady Wang’s daughter, the Imperial Concubine, Princess Jia, they see it as evidence of their good standing with the Emperor. However, Princess Jia tries to warn her mother and grandmother that the Imperial Palace is swarming with conspirators and that her power to protect them may be short-lived. When she distributes gifts from the Emperor to the Jia Family, it becomes clear that he too seems to favor the marriage of Bao Yu and Bao Chai.  Dai Yu and Bao Yu are filled with despair.

Act II

Beside her favorite Lake in the Red Chambers compound, Dai Yu collects and buries peach blossom petals. Bao Yu is profoundly moved when he overhears her. Bao Chai encourages him to apply for an Imperial post of distinction that has recently been advertised. Bao Yu disdainfully rejects the idea, telling her that she does not understand him. When he leaves, Bao Chai expresses her sorrow and feeling of humiliation at Bao Yu’s treatment of her affections. Granny Jia becomes ill and dies, but not before she makes clear that her final wish is for Bao Yu and Dai Yu to be married. In the meantime, however, Princess Jia has fallen victim to her enemies at the Imperial Court and writes a farewell letter to her mother informing her that she has fallen out of favor and will soon die, by Imperial Decree. She tells Lady Wang that, in order to save the Jia Family, she must compel Bao Yu to marry Bao Chai. Lady Wang tries to explain the situation to Bao Yu, but he refuses to listen and runs off.             

When they meet again, she takes a different approach. Pretending to accede to his wishes, she tells him that she will allow his marriage to Dai Yu. However, she will not permit him to see her prior to the wedding. What Bao Yu does not realize is that Lady Wang has moved Dai Yu to the far side of the Lake and plans to have Bao Chai take her place at the wedding. At the marriage ceremony, Bao Yu exchanges vows with the veiled woman he assumes to be Dai Yu. When he discovers the truth, he denounces his family and runs off in fury and grief. At the same moment, Imperial Soldiers arrive and announce that the Jia and Xue assets, joined as they have been by the marriage of Bao Yu and Bao Chai, are now the property of the Emperor. In the ensuing fiery conflagration, the entire Red Chambers are destroyed and the Jia Family is driven into exile.

The mysterious Taoist reappears and meets Bao Yu on the road, then he leads him away. Dai Yu, having burned all of the poems that she had once written for her beloved Bao Yu, walks slowly into the Lake and drowns.  

Director’s Notes

One of the four cornerstone novels of Chinese literary history, Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng), written in the 18^th century (primarily by Cao Xueqin) is in every sense a unique artifact of Chinese cultural history. The mythological origins of the story are rooted in the symbiotic relationship of the Stone and the Flower, who long to fulfill their deep love for each other through the experience of human passion. Yet their earthly incarnations, as Bao Yu and Dai Yu respectively, are destined to suffer only disillusionment and grief, caught up, as they are, in the machinations of the Jia Family personal and political affairs. In short, life on earth, with all its emotional volatility and insincerity, fails to provide these lovers with the profound joy and fulfillment for which they are so yearning. Yet the end of the novel, as well as the opera, leaves us uncertain about their ultimate fate. Dai Yu appears to drown in the Lake, but maybe she simply returns to her mythological origins as the beautiful, but delicate, Crimson Flower, responding with gratitude to the daily gift of dew from the Stone. And then Bao Yu is led away at the end by the mysterious Taoist Monk – we know not where! Who is this strange figure and how is he connected to the story? Is Bao Yu his own earthly incarnation? The tale is ambiguous. This moment in the story bears a strange resemblance to the end of Verdi’s opera Don Carlos when a mysterious monk-like figure draws the title character into the sepulchre of Charles V. We simply can’t say where Bao Yu has gone. Perhaps to a life of spiritual contemplation and the renunciation of all earthly passion. Or perhaps he too returns to bestow his dew on the Crimson Flower by some Eternal River.

Dream of the Red Chamber, the opera, brings this extraordinary parable to life with an astonishing dramatic power and sensuous beauty, in a provocative synthesis of western  and eastern musical ideas. It will be a unique musical event and is not to be missed!