WEIR: A Night at the Chinese Opera.(Review)

OPERA AND ORATORIO

WEIR: A Night at the Chinese Opera [] Grummet, Lynch, McCafferty; Chance, Robinson, Thompson, Thomas, Daymond, George; Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Parrott. English text only NMC D060 (2) (Qualiton, dist.)

British composer Judith Weir admits in the notes accompanying this release that there is nothing unusual about the device of a play within a play, yet she has found a unique and intriguing way of exploiting it. The "play within" in question, The Chao Family Orphan, dates from the period of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368 AD). It reached the West in the eighteenth century via a French translation and is still performed today by Chinese opera troupes. The play (or opera) without is Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera. Her musical adaptation of The Chao Family Orphan occupies Act II of the three-act work.

Acts I and III tell the story of the purportedly "real" Chao Lin, whose father was driven into exile by the Mongolian invasion of China and died of cold and hunger. Chao grows up, working as a gifted canal-builder who is regarded favorably by the regime that caused his father's death. When Chao views a performance of The Chao Family Orphan, he is struck by the similarity to his own life and becomes aware for the first time of the fate his father suffered. He seeks revenge against the Military Governor but fails and is himself put to death. In a chilling touch, Chao is executed offstage during a performance of the final scene of The Chao Family Orphan, in which the "fictional" Chao succeeds in avenging ...