High-Definition Simulcast of the performance in The Astor Court
Friday, November 30, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Tickets: $15
Made possible in part by the US-China Cultural Institute.
With the aim of animating Metropolitan Museum galleries in new ways, Met Museum Presents offers the 16th-century kunqu opera masterpiece The Peony Pavilion, in a 70-minute version developed and directed by celebrated composer Tan Dun with choreography by Huang Doudou, one of China's most prominent dancers, in the Met's Astor Court, the courtyard modeled on a 17th-century garden.
The five performances of the opera in The Astor Court are sold out, but tickets are available for a live, high-definition simulcast of the first of the performances, on Friday, November 30.
The Peony Pavilion is one of the most important works of classical Chinese opera. A sweeping love story with subplots involving feudalism, the work in its original form consisted of fifty-five acts that take more than twenty hours to perform. This version is directed by Zhang Jun, one of China's most respected kunqu performers, and remains faithful to the core plot focusing on the love story between the heroine and hero—Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei—and the Peony Pavilion where their love began.
A Conversation with Tan Dun: A New Peony Pavilion in an Old Context
Thursday, November 29, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Tickets: $25
Made possible by the C.F. Roe Slade Foundation.
World-renowned composer Tan Dun will discuss his vision for restaging the classic kunqu opera Peony Pavilion with Maxwell K. Hearn, Douglas Dillon Curator in Charge of the Department of Asian Art, who organized the complementary exhibition Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats. The exhibition demonstrates that China's enclosed gardens, an integral part of residential and palace architecture, have long served as sites for literary gatherings, theatrical performances, and imaginary outings.
Tickets to the events are available at www.metmuseum.org/tickets or by calling 212-570-3949.
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August 9, 2012
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