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Composer Guo Wenjing's newest operaThe Rickshaw Boy presents the pathos of an old Beijing but audiences will recognize the essence of the city today. Chen Jie talks to him.
'No matter if you are a dog or a rooster, I would love you. Whatever others say, I will be with you. Do not fool me, I'll destroy you." Composer Guo Wenjing narrows his eyes and nods his head to the rhythm while listening to a soprano practice the aria of his latest opera The Rickshaw Boy.
It is the 58-year-old composer's most-loved aria because "it brings out heroine Huniu's personality."
Huniu, a virago in her late 30s sings the aria after she seduces Xiangzi, a rickshaw puller, into bed. Daughter of the owner of a rickshaw shop, Huniu is middle-aged, ugly and mean, but many rickshaw pullers want to marry her to inherit the shop. She, however, only loves the honest and hardworking Xiangzi, whose life-long dream is to own a rickshaw.
In order to marry him, Huniu even becomes estranged from her father. Of course, the story does not end with the couple living happily ever after.
Another part of the opera that the composer highly recommends is a sad intermezzo when Huniu dies of dystocia because the couple were penniless and could not see a doctor, and Xiao Fuzi, the other heroine, is forced into prostitution and also dies.
"It is completely a Mahler-style symphony," the composer says.
"I cried after finishing this part. I cried for Huniu, for Xiangzi, and also because I finally wrote an opera for Beijing, the city where I've lived for more than 30 years."
Adapted from a classic novel of the same title by Lao She (1899-1966), the opera tells the story of Xiangzi, who lives in old Beijing and believes he can improve his life if he works hard but is unable to make it.
Guo says he had several stories in mind but never thought of Lao She's books. When the National Center for the Performing Arts commissioned him and recommended the story in 2012, he re-read the novel and realized that the dramatic plot, strong emotions, vivid personalities of the main characters and their tragic fate were all rich sources for an opera.
"I've lived in Beijing for three decades, witnessing dramatic changes every day but I don't think Beijingers have changed, even compared to Lao She's time," he says.
He views a modern day taxi driver as Xiangzi and woman as Huniu - tough on the outside but soft inside. In summer, he says, you can still see the "rude, half-naked men getting drunk in hutong", in the same way men did a century ago. All these elements of the city helped him shape the characters in his opera, Guo says.
The old capital, which in the original book was described as being "filthy, beautiful, decadent, bustling, chaotic, idle, lovable" (translated by Jean M. James 1979), is an important backdrop to the story. Previous adaptations, be it for a film, a drama or performances of Peking Opera, have all highlighted the typical Beijing flavor, from the dialect to customs.
But Guo's is an opera first, he says. The Beijing flavor is just a sauce for the big dish.
Although he had heard old Beijing ballads and folk melodies, he says a few folk songs don't make an opera. "Opera needs a wide range of arias, chorus, symphonic music, strong emotion and dramatic plot."
"The Rickshaw Boy is known for its Beijing style, but I think it depicts not only the fate of Beijingers but of all Chinese people at the time."
Born in southwestern Chongqing city in 1956, Guo started to learn the violin at 12 because his parents wanted him to stay at home instead of working in the countryside during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). At 16, Guo's talents fetched him a position at the Chongqing Song and Dance Company.
In the mid '70s, he came across records of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade, Alexander Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia and Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No 11. Hearing the Russian composers made Guo want to compose rather than be a violinist. He even traded his handwritten violin scores with other trainee musicians for composition books by Igor Sposobin and Korsakov.
With the ambition to write "great symphony", Guo taught himself composing and was admitted to the composition department of the Beijing-based Central Conservatory of Music in 1978, the first year students could enroll after the "cultural revolution".
Guo and his classmates including Tan Dun, Chen Qigang, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Qu Xiaosong, Liu Suola and Xu Shuya became the first generation of Chinese composers to be recognized by Western audiences.
In 1991, the Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam had a concert featuring compositions by seven students from that class, including Guo's chamber music She Huo. Guo's piece impressed composer Joel Bons, who was artistic director of the Nieuw Ensemble and Ed Spanjaard, the conductor. They then decided to commission Guo to write an opera.
"It's unbelievable that they expected me to write an opera just a week after we met and played one of my small chamber pieces. They knew me better than myself," Guo recalls.
Guo's first opera Wolf Cub Village premiered in Amsterdam in 1994 and received wide acclaim throughout Europe. Ever since, he has composed operas that include Night Banquet, Feng Yi Ting, Poet Li Bai, Mu Guiying and Hua Mulan.
Guo is proud that he has written more operas than all his classmates have, and although most of the operas have been commissioned by Western organizations, he has - with the exception of a few months in New York - never lived outside China.
The composer's skills are enough to get him the respect he deserves.
Contact the writer at chenjie@chinadaily.com.cn
IF YOU GO
The Rickshaw Boy
7:30 pm, June 25-28, National Center for the Performing Arts, west of Tian'anmen Square, Xicheng district, Beijing.
010-6655-0000.
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Guo Wenjing's latest opera The Rickshaw Boy was inspired by the classic novel of the same name by Lao She. Jiang Dong / China Daily |
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Performers rehearse The Rickshaw Boy, scheduled to premiere at the National Center for the Performing Arts on June 25. Provided to China Daily |
