United States Huang Ruo & David Henry Hwang, The Monkey King: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of San Francisco Opera / Carolyn Kuan (conductor). Warfare Memorial Opera Home, San Francisco, 16.11.2025. (HS)
Opera excels when all of its fundamental parts – story, music, performing, singing and visuals – come along with vigor and concord, which very a lot describes San Francisco Opera’s jaw-dropping The Monkey King. Its world premiere over the weekend delivered a feast of dazzling theatricality, charming story-telling and wonderful singing.
Music by Huang Ruo responds vividly to David Henry Hwang’s free-wheeling libretto primarily based on parts of Journey to the West, the traditional Ming Dynasty-era novel. Creative staging frames excellent singing, performing, dancing and puppetry, and all of it bubbles over with one delight after one other.
The story zeroes in on the Monkey King, Solar Wukong, a personality who shares the rebelliousness of such tricksters as Wagner’s Loge plus the talents of a modern-day film superhero. The curtain rises on him in a rock the place he has been imprisoned for 500 years. A Buddhist refrain intones ‘Energy alone isn’t sufficient’ as Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, floats above in her lotus-shaped perch. The distinction between her serenity and Monkey’s irritation units the stage for the story arc, informed in a sequence of flashback scenes that hint his rise to the ability of a god – and his fall due to his conceitedness.
The marvel of this piece is how a lot enjoyable may be had in a narrative that’s finally about discovering enlightenment. Alongside the way in which, Monkey exhibits a snarky wit, devilish smarts, resourcefulness and audacity. In an early narrative, he tells us he was often known as ‘The Good-looking Monkey King’, noting that he added the ‘good-looking’. He finds his non secular purpose solely on the finish.
The music displays such contrasts. It’s rhythmic and angular in massive scenes of battle as Monkey challenges highly effective figures – and sometimes prevails – within the depth of the ocean and a heaven populated by gods who’re much more boastful that he. However at any time when Guanyin seems to him, floating gently above, the music turns serene, yielding some terribly lovely moments of repose.
It’s also a fusion of East and West, utilizing melodic tropes that allude to Peking Opera and Chinese language people music in a Western symphonic framework. It’s propulsive however by no means harshly dissonant. An orchestra of bel canto-era measurement, enhanced by Chinese language percussion and an exquisite use of the Chinese language pipa (performed by Silicon Valley-based virtuoso Shenshen Zhang), flourished underneath conductor Carolyn Kuan. She is one thing of a Ruo specialist, and she or he formed sure-footed music-making that match flawlessly with the singers and refrain.
Within the second of eight scheduled performances at Warfare Memorial Opera Home, it was simple to see why visible points have been attracting probably the most consideration. Basil Twist’s ingenious surroundings and puppetry added further life to the motion, particularly the intelligent doubling of Monkey with each a dancer and a puppet clothed in the identical costumes. A coterie of black-clad puppeteers made the puppet model fly.
Dancer Huiwang Zhang flung himself round in choreography by Ann Yee (with session on Peking Opera fashion by Jamie Guan). All of this segued seamlessly with tenor Kang Wang within the title function, suggesting a monkey perspective with open mouth, scratching himself and twisting his physique like a monkey.
Basil Twist was additionally chargeable for the units, utilizing 4,500 yards of silk and different supplies to create such wonders as a pair of undersea jellyfish, a sequence of steep mountains that fold over to change into Buddha’s hand, billowing clouds and a coup de théâtre of six horses that fly to freedom. Anita Yavich’s witty, colourful costumes made every character eye-catching, and projections by Hana S. Kim lit up backgrounds and layers of diaphanous curtains to create credible photos that have been amazingly fluid. Pulling all of it along with a certain hand, Tony-winning Broadway director Diane Paulis conjured up a really perfect mixture of pleasure and readability.
Throughout the board, the solid inhabited their roles and delivered excellent singing. Wang as Solar Wukong was tireless, twirling a preventing stick like a martial arts champ and revealing a wealthy lyric voice that may be welcome in any Puccini opera. One of many highlights, his sleek aria ‘Land of Bliss’, expressed a peacefulness at having discovered a serene place and outwitted the Buddha. Solely he hasn’t, and he’s trapped (by a dissatisfied Buddha) the place we discovered him initially, for 500 years with a refrain that sings sutras to him always.
Mei Gui Zhang lent her silky soprano and dignified presence to Guanyin, who has promised the Buddha to observe over Wukong. She starred as Dai Yu in Vivid Sheng’s Dream of the Purple Chamber (with libretto by Hwang) right here in 2022, and in Monkey King she has a few of the present’s most lovely arias. Probably the most touching one got here on the finish when, in response to Wukong’s complaints, she asks ‘Have you ever listened? Have you ever opened your coronary heart?’, and it results in his enlightenment, his freedom and an imposing musical end.
Among the many array of gods in ‘heaven’ extra involved with their very own energy and luxury than anything, standouts included tenor Konu Kim because the Jade Emperor, bass Peixin Chen because the always-wrong Supreme Sage Laojun and Joo Received Kang as Lord Erlang, tasked with battling Wukong in an elaborate struggle scene that ingeniously concerned dancers doubling him and the monkey for further athleticism.
Lastly, the contribution of the refrain, 45-strong, can’t be overstated. Singing sutras in Mandarin and fascinating in scenes as warriors, residents of heaven and Wukong’s monkey tribe in English, they have been busy. And, as common, flawless.
That is Ruo’s tenth opera, Hwang’s fourteenth and their third collectively. Most not too long ago, their opera model of Hwang’s Broadway play M. Butterfly debuted in 2022 at Santa Fe Opera. An interview in this system guide hints that Ruo and Hwang are open to additional operatic adventures for Wukong. In spite of everything, there may be the remainder of Journey to the West as tempting materials.
Harvey Steiman
Featured Picture: Dancer Hui Wang Zhang (Monkey King’s double) soars as Monkey King learns the key of immortality © Cory Weaver
Manufacturing:
Director – Diane Paulus
Units & Puppetry – Basil Twist
Choreographer – Ann Yee
Costumes – Anita Yavich
Lighting – Ayumu ‘Poe’ Saegusa
Projection – Hana S. Kim
Peking Opera Specialist – Jamie Guan
Refrain director – John Keene
Solid:
Monkey King (Solar Wukong) – Kang Wang
Jade Emperor – Konu Kim
Guanyin – Mei Gui Zhang
Supreme Sage Laojun – Peixin Chen
Dragon King Ao Guang / Lord Erlang – Joo Received Kang
Crab Basic / Venus Star – Hongni Wu
Grasp Subhuti (Buddha) – Jusung Gabriel Park
King of the North – Christopher Jackson
King of the South – Chester Pidduck
King of the East – Jonathan Smucker
King of the West – William O’Neill
Solo Dancer: Monkey King – Huiwang Zhang
Solo Dancer: Lord Erlang – Marcos Vedovetto
