0:03
“Interrupted dream” is the classic of classical scenes.
We basically followed the traditional music (melody).
However, this (following) design is very important.
That is the (newly designed) flower goddesses.
These flower goddesses are very beautiful.
Everyone felt that our flower goddesses are a success.
The success of our flower goddesses is in fact due to a break with tradition.
In such places I feel sometimes innovation is called for.
Not that Kunqu must always follow tradition, never innovate. But you cannot innovate carelessly.
In the matter of the flower goddesses, I felt that (originally) there were no rules anyway.
In Tang Xianzu’s time, there was only one great flower god,
a bearded flower god who just entered and showed his face.
Later performance scripts indicated a lot of flower goddesses.
Some (producers) felt modernization was needed. OK, what about the design of the goddesses?
In the beginning of the last century, flower goddesses were thought to be great (idea)!
All were goddesses, very pretty. What were they holding?
Every goddess held a bunch of plastic flowers, came out and waved those around.
I believe that that was very modern then:
plastic flowers were terrific at that time. Very modern.
Of course it won’t do now. Won’t look good now.
I thought at the time, the success of this scene in our production depends on our flower goddesses.
So I had a bold idea.
Personally I was never satisfied with the previous flower goddesses.
We must have a design that
surpasses what went before, and it must be truly beautiful.
Because “Interrupted dream” is a crucial scene: the flower goddess came to celebrate their love.
How can they not be beautiful?
Let us look at the flower goddesses in our “Interrupted dream” scene.
I said that plastic flowers don’t look good,
and are awkward for dancing.
So I had the flowers embroidered on their clothes, on those white capes.
(That) looks better on the flower goddesses.
Twelve seasonal flowers, plum blossoms, chrysanthemums, all different.
Besides, these are Suzhou hand embroidery. Very beautiful.
Look at these flower goddesses, like fairies. Beautiful?
Look at this picture! Looks like crimson and purple in bloom.
See that ribbon, very important. We made that up.
It is green, a green ribbon. We got the inspiration from Chu culture.
… Chu culture had a custom of a “soul summoning banner”.
It is springtime; the green ribbon represents willow branches.
Willows summon spring time, a dance of spring.
I think that is a meaningful symbol.
In the beginning we used a real willow branch. That was ugly.
… But the prop (ribbon)…
is abstract, an abstract representation of spring.
Our entire design, not only the costumes,
we also used modern technology backstage: namely, rear projection.
That is also abstract.
In the scene “The soul departs” we also made some breakthrough (innovations).
“The soul departs” is the last scene of Book I.
The heroine Du Liniang was lovesick and died.
In death, the soul must leave the body.
How did we design the instant of the soul’s departure?
There were several breakthroughs.
Look at the costume. I’m going to claim credit again.
This was my idea.
4:22
Because Du Liniang is passionate, very passionate.
She wants to stay in the world. She wants to come back.
So, we did not use the color of mourning: white.
I wanted to use red.
Because red represents her passion.
Moreover, she wants to stay in the human world.
So I made it very long, draped it all over the stage.
. Moreover, when she dies, she leaves from
stage center to the nether world.
Here we broke with tradition completely.
The normal Kunqu practice is to enter stage left, exit stage right;
Almost no exceptions. Left enter; right exit.
We broke with tradition and exited from the stage center.
Otherwise the effect of this red cape would be lost.
On this point, we borrowed from modern spoken drama staging.
I feel that at this point it is all right.
This will not harm the integrity of traditional Kunqu.
At the very last moment she turns and smiles; we follow with spotlight.
She turns and smiles, holding a branch of plum blossom.
Meaning: she will return to find her lover.
It is not only meaningful but also beautiful.
When we designed the play, the last scene of each book,
the last image is very important. Why?
There are three books.
After the first book, we want you to come back the next day.
That is why the first ending is very important.
(Now) I want to talk about the scene “Declaration of ambitions”.
This scene seems to be a transitional scene introducing the character Liu Mengmei (the male protagonist).
Liu Mengmei is a poor scholar, yet he claims to be
a descendant of Liu Zongyuan*... Tang Xianzu made this up.
6:40
You might remember that Liu Zongyuan was exiled to Lingnan (in present day Guangdong province).
He settled in the Guangdong, Guangxi region.
So this scene should be set in south China.
He is a failed scholar, hadn’t passed the examination yet.
He has no scholarly ranking, and is poor. But he is still a scholar.
So we thought about how to design this scene.
We can’t just set him down in a rundown study, wouldn’t look good.
So we went with abstractionism. Look at the stage setting…
Look at these four scrolls: Tong Yang-tze’s calligraphy.
He (Liu) is, after all, descendant of a scholarly lineage.
Written on the scroll is an essay narrative by Liu Zongyuan.
Liu Mengmei is supposed to be a descendant of Liu Zongyuan, so using Liu style calligraphy is appropriate.
7:46
We thought about this carefully.
The calligraphy is beautiful and the design is elegant.
This is Liu Mengmei. Look at his image.
We used this abstract (calligraphy) as backdrop.
The four scrolls explains his status, his descent,
and also form a sophisticated backdrop.
As we know “The interrupted dream” is a colorful scene;
it is followed by this very understated scene…
a change of visual scene, a completely different feeling.
Because to maintain visual variety through nine hours of performance is not easy.
That gown of his, designed by Wang Tong, is also thoughtful.
He wears a green gown with bamboo design, expressing his personality.
Bamboo represents the scholar’s unbending spirit...
the scholar’s pride. Liu Mengmei has that scholarly pride.
All of these elements have their meaning.
I think this kind of stage design is rather modernistic.
Do not overlook the special spacing of those four panels.
They are not set in one straight line.
Do you see? To line them up in straight line is not right.
There are differences in depth, giving a sense of space.
These are modernistic stagecraft.
Besides, let me say, these are abstract and expressive.
Too many props will obstruct (the performance).
Prof. Wei Hua 華瑋Professor and Division Head
Prof. Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai 白先勇Wei Lun Professor of Humanities
Prof. Lindy Li Mark 李林德Professor Emerita
