New in my collection : program book for Huang Ruo's 'Paradise Interrupted'

Yesterday, I have received in the mail the program book published by Spoleto Festival USA for the world première performance of Huang Ruo's new opera, Paradise Interrupted.

It is a 140 pages book including the complete program for all concerts and performances of the 2015 Festival. It contains 8 pages dedicated to Ruo's opera :

- Strangers in Paradise, by Lindsley Miyoshi ;
- complete cast and crew ;
- director's note and synopsis ;
- composer's note ;
- biographies of the creative team members, with B & W photos.

Here is a link to the flickr folder containing the covers of all program books I have for contemporary operas.

May 22nd, 2015 : world première of Huang Ruo's 'Paradise Interrrupted' in Spoleto USA

Today, Huang Ruo's new opera, Paradise Interrupted, with a libretto by Ji Chao, Jennifer Wen Ma, Huang Ruo, and Qian Yi, will be performed in Charleston (SC) as part of the Spoleto Festival USA.

It is at least Huang Ruo's third opera, after Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (2011) and An American Soldier (2014). This new opera marries Chinese tradition dating from the Ming Dynasty with contemporary Western idioms.

In a dream, a woman meets her lover and searches for an unattainable ideal as a vast garden grows from an empty stage, only to disappear as her dream ends. (reproduced from the Festival website).

The cast includes Joseph Dennis, John Holiday, Joo Won Kang and Ao Li (The four Male Soloists) and Qian Yi (Woman). John Kennedy conducts a chamber orchestra mixing Western and Chinese instruments. Jennifer Wen Ma directs.