A Night at the Chinese Opera 1989

Synopsis
Artists

Self-knowledge is the theme…

of Weir’s play-within-an-opera – a modern adaptation of a 13th-century Yuan dynasty tale. This timeless story fictionalizes one man’s search to find his place in the real world.

Music and Libretto By

Judith Weir

Act I

A small provincial city on the north-west borders of late 13th-century China.
SCENE ONE: The city of Loyan is invaded by the army of Khubilai Khan.
SCENE TWO: Chao Sun, an explorer and mapmaker, leaves the city for exile, rather than live under military occupation. He leaves behind his baby son and wife, who dies shortly afterwards.
SCENE THREE: His son, Chao Lin, brought up by neighbors in ignorance of his parents, falls under the invaders’ influence.
SCENE FOUR: China is assailed by floods. The invaders, ignorant of the Chinese sciences of irrigation and agriculture, seek local advice. Chao Lin, now a young man, is given command. His success is prodigious.
SCENE FIVE: Chao Lin needs laborers for his latest endeavor: the construction of a canal from the city to a nearby mountain range. Amongst the beggars he rounds up are three former actors, once in the service of the last Chinese Emperor. By chance, Chao Lin meets his boyhood neighbors and is surprised to hear his father’s flight into exile spoken of with approval; he is given the map his father left unfinished; by coincidence it describes the mountains through which the canal will run.
SCENE SIX: On the eve of his departure to start work, Chao Lin learns that the actors have been giving secret performances of old Chinese plays, in defiance of the curfew. On their last night in the city they are going to perform The Poor Orphan of the Chao Family, a famous Chinese play in which an orphan is befriended by his father’s enemy. Chao Lin decides to attend the performance.

Act II

“The Orphan of the Chao Family”
PRELUDE: The wicked General Tu-an-Ku plots against Chao-the-Loyal-Civil-Servant, who also enjoys the Emperor’s favor. The General sends Chao a forged order to commit suicide. He does so.
FIRST ACT OF “THE ORPHAN“: Chao’s wife entrusts her new-born son, the Orphan of Chao, to Ch’eng Ying, her loyal retainer. She then kills herself. Ch’eng Ying escapes with the baby hidden in a medicine chest, thanks to the kindness of General Han Chueh, who has been guarding the gates but lets him go past. General Han Chueh kills himself rather than reveal his secret.
SECOND ACT OF “THE ORPHAN“: Ch’eng Ying hides the baby at the home of Kung-Sun Chu-Ch’iu, once a colleague of Chao-the-Loyal-Servant, and now a pig farmer. Ch’eng Ying escapes into the mountains, just before General Tu-an-Ku arrives on the track of the Orphan of Chao. The General, thinking he has found the baby hidden in the medicine chest, thrusts the sword inside. He does not know that, at the last moment, a small pig has secretly been substituted. The General, finding the real baby (whom he thinks is Kung-Sun’s son) offers to adopt him in gratitude for what he thinks is Kung-Sun’s cooperation.
THIRD ACT OF “THE ORPHAN“: Twenty years pass. The General invites the now grown-up Orphan of Chao (who is as yet unaware of his real identity) to take part in a plot which will overthrow the Emperor. In anticipation of this event, the General has had a coin struck bearing his own features. He gives this coin to the orphan. An immortal, looking down from heaven, is shocked by this perversion of the natural order, whereby the Emperor’s divinely-inspired rule is inviolable. He sends an earthquake to warn them, but the general ignores it. Ch’eng Ying, returning from the mountains where he has lived amongst rebels and outcasts for the last twenty years, leaves a scroll depicting the events of twenty years ago in the library, where the Orphan finds it. With Ch’eng Ying’s help, the Orphan deciphers the scroll and learns his real identity. He immediately swears vengeance on General Tu-an-Ku.
FOURTH ACT OF “THE ORPHAN“: The Orphan sends a message to the General, suggesting they meet secretly in the market place to discuss a conspiracy against the Emperor. As the General and the Orphan meet, the Orphan raises his javelin, vowing vengeance.
At this point, the Fireman and the Soldier arrive with news of a real, though small, earthquake reported in the north of the country. As a precaution, everyone is asked to leave. The audience is chided for gathering together subversively after dark. Chao Lin is seen leaving the performance, deep in thought.

Act III

INTRODUCTION: The historical passage from Marco Polo’s Travels about canal-building in 14^th-century China, sung by Marco Polo.
SCENE ONE: The morning after the play. The workers’ convoy, consisting of the three (now imprisoned) actors, is about to set off for the mountains under the command of Chao Lin. The Military Governor congratulates him on his work which will “overcome the laws of nature,” and presents him with a seal of office, conferring further authority on him. Chao Lin is distressed by these further reminders of the play.
SCENE TWO: In the countryside, Chao Lin marks out the route his canal will take. He meets an old woman collecting firewood who recommends a nearby mountain as a suitable vantage point; it is White Raven Mountain.
SCENE THREE: Impelled by curiosity about his father’s fate, and masquerading as a scientific enquirer, Chao Lin ascends the mountain, following his father’s map.
SCENE FOUR: At the top, he sees a solitary mountain dweller sitting on an adjacent mountain peak. The old man confirms that many exiles from the city tried to settle and survive in this remote and inhospitable region. One by one they died of cold and hunger; amongst the dead was Chao Sun. Chao Lin immediately plots revenge.
SCENE FIVE: The Soldier and the Military Governor stand on the mountain path in the dark mist, having been summoned by a mysterious message from Chao Lin, written on the back of a fragment of the map delivered by the Old Mountain Dweller. Chao Lin, now wild and deranged in appearance, stalks them in the bushes, planning to attack, but at the moment he is poised to strike, the Military Governor glimpses him, and he is soon overcome and marched away by the Soldier.
SCENE SIX: The prisoners’ convoy is returned to the city and the Actors are released. Chao Lin is sentenced to death for treason. After he is led away, the Actors rehearse the final scene of their play (which they were prevented from performing at the end of Act II). Here, the Orphan of Chao overcomes General Tu-an-Ku and reports his treason to the Emperor, who sentences the General to death and rewards the Orphan and all who assisted him in overcoming the General.