Zuni Icosahedron
direction, concept, staging
Danny Yung
composition
NERVE, Pun Tak-shu
libretto
Chen Ko-hua
artistical advisors
Xu Xingjie, Vivien Ku, Tian Mansha
video
John Wong
producers
Yuewai Wong, Doris Kan
soloists
Shi Xiaomei, Lan Tian, Dong Hongsong, David Yeung
Tears of Barren Hill was a co-commissioned work by Hong Kong Arts Festival and Zuni Icosahedron in 2008. Zuni Icosahedron is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
location
Rotterdamse Schouwburg
day
SAT MAY 23, 18.00 hrs
SAT MAY 23, 21.00 hrs
time
100 min.
prices
€ 27,50 / € 23,50 / € 18,50
CJP/R'dam pas € 25 / € 21 / € 16
Schouwburgkaart € 22,50 / € 18,50 / € 13,50
type
traditional / modern
Decades before China developed her current policy of cultural openness, the Chinese Opera singer Cheng Yanqui (1904-1958) travelled to Europe in search of inspiration. In the 1930s he visited Berlin, London, Brussels and Paris. He sang Chinese arias in a church in Berlin and arranged Western music in the style of Peking Opera, returning home with a great quantity of ideas in his luggage. These ideas inspired Danny Yung to create the multimedia performance Tears of Barren Hill. Cheng had already been searching for a type of crossover music theatre and Yung built upon his work by combining music by Bach, Mozart and Verdi with Cheng's own music and with the music of such 20th century phenomena as Billie Holiday and Glenn Gould as well as video clips by Leni Riefenstahl. The Chinese Opera singer Shi Xiaomei now performs a female role for the first time and two students of the Peking Opera explore the boundaries of space, time, art and culture in the context of a church, a schoolroom, a train station, a theatre and an airport.
behind the scenes:
Released from the straitjacket
‘I almost feel that Asians know more about European cultures than Europeans know about Asian cultures. Through learning from others, we learn more about ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, our egos and our prejudices. But then learning is only the beginning, the importance is what comes after the learning.' - Danny Yung