2024 Dream of the Red Chamber Workshop @ UMN
On February 11 the U MN Opera Theatre began its preparation for its Midwest Premiere of Dream of the Red Chamber in November and gathered its artistic team together for a six-day workshop. The artistic team consists of Tim Yip 葉錦添 as the set and costume design consultant, taoist philosopher/taichi master/calligrapher Al Chungliang Huang 黃忠良 as our taoist, and legendary dancer Zhongmei Li 李忠梅 as our choreographer.
Zhongmei Li (https://www.zhongmei.org), was originally from China. She had loved to dance from a young age and finally, at age 11, she was one of 12 girls chosen from a nationwide competition to attend the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy and soon became a principal dancer of its touring troupe. She performed widely throughout Asia before coming over to the U.S. to study American modern dance at the Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham Schools. Since settling in NYC, she has kept a busy career as a performer, choreographer, and teacher.
Zhongmei came to MSP last week with three professional dancers who will be the dancing doubles of the three principals, Jia BaoYu, Lin DaiYu and Xue BaoChai in the opera Dream of the Red Chamber. She had already been rehearsing with them in NYC in preparation for this workshop.
Taoist philosopher/taichi master/calligrapher Al Chungliang Huang (https://livingtao.org) is a celebrated author/speaker/performer/mentor. He is a highly regarded authority on Tai Ji, Taoist philosophy, and related disciplines. He was a featured dancer in the Universal Studio production of the movie The Flower Drum Song and has since created and taught his own style of Tai Ji dancing. He will be developing the all-encompassing role of the Taoist priest in Dream of the Red Chamber.
Designer Tim Yip ( https://www.timyipstudio.com/) has become an ‘old friend’ of CHF: we first met him when he was the set and costume designer of the San Francisco Opera’s world premiere production of Dream of the Red Chamber. Last year he came to Minneapolis to create, together with Mia curator Yang Liu, the highly popular Eternal Offerings, an immersive exhibit of ancient Chinese ritual bronzes. He will be mentoring and supervising a group of young costume and set designers to create an environment that shifts between illusion and reality.
After three days of intense give and take sessions among these artists and director David Walsh, they have developed a consensus on the concept and philosophy of this production, from the magical ethereal beginning in the land of immortals to the world of humans (red dust) down below.
On Friday at noon the artistic team joined Patrick Warfield, Director of the School of Music, Ann Waltner, interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Pearl Lam Bergad, executive director of the Chinese Heritage Foundation, for a wide-ranging public forum on the making of this new production of Dream of the Red Chamber.
That evening, CHF organized a welcome banquet for the artistic team at Peking Garden. Attended by devoted member supporters of this opera since its inception in 2011 and newcomers attracted by its wide acclaim, everyone had a wonderful time meeting the new artistic team. In between carefully curated and attentively prepared courses, conversations flowed easily among artists and excited opera lovers. The atmosphere of conviviality culminated with information that the artistic team shared about their roles and conception of the staging of our new November staging. Comments by David Walsh, Mark Russell Smith, Director of Orchestral Studies, and Patrick Warfield, Director of the School of Music all expressed their excitement and gratitude for the learning opportunities this production will give to their students. To give a taste of how Chinese opera movements would influence the performances of the singers, soprano Xinyi Zhou 周馨怡 gave a demonstration while she sang a traditional Chinese aria 梨花颂 “Ode to Pear Blossoms”. A mesmerized audience remained in a silent trance for a long minute before an enthusiastic applause broke out. Long after the official program was over, many attendees were still lingering, connecting with each other and the artistic team. The energy and excitement in the room was palpable and everyone went out into the night joyfully skipping and looking forward to the Midwest premiere in November.