I think it's a more philosophical refraction of what happened in China over the events
40 years later.
In Adams' music, I love the rhythms, although they're very complicated, but I personally
really enjoy conducting music like that.
But at the same time, I also like the different styles that he uses, particularly mixing in
China where he uses a lot of big band, things like Duke Ellington and also rock and roll,
but then also combining it with say Mahler and Wagner and Strauss, all of that.
So it all comes together really wonderfully well, and I enjoy listening to it very much.
From the very start, I think the way it has been scripted, the text itself is absolutely
wonderful.
I mean, it's really precise.
Not only does it capture the historical moment, it also captures the fragility of the human
mind, the aspirations, the desires, the failures, you know, it captures the dark and the political
aspirations and captures like the kind of emotional kind of fragility of the main characters.
I think it's really great.
The music itself really makes you feel very like a thrill.
It's conflict.
There's a beat in it throughout, and it keeps you alive.
Shatalei has found some wonderful Asian singers, and of course Sumi Cho is well-classed, well-renowned,
and I think that works really, really well.
Also for the language that, of course, they don't speak perfect English or pronounced perfectly,
although they all speak English, but of course it's with the accent, and that's quite nice
to hear when they're singing it.
So you've got the Americans like Franco Pomponi and June Anderson, et cetera, who sing it with
the real American accent, and then the Asian singers who have a bit of the twang of Asian
English behind them, and I think that works really, really well.
And it's great to have different cultures coming together, you know, which is, of course,
what the story was about.
I grew up with Maus Prabhuganda, also with all this Maus modern opera and ballet, and
I practiced when I was young.
And it's interesting to look back and to have enough distance, to not have too much emotion,
but look at what is interesting about it, what's the purpose, whether this can also
be depicted, and to re-choreograph into this piece to generate a certain emotion for this
very opera.
So every element, like whether it's the mount statue in the end, you see it in a scaffolding
under construction, or you see, you know, the suspended roof.
Everything has a kind of metaphor or subtext, which is based on the, like, the elements
all come out from every act, but it's slightly shifted and changed to add an extra meaning
to it.
This opera reminded me so much of what happened during China in the 60s, 70s, and these also
I'm trying to find a way to depict those experiences, to put on the stage so that somehow there's
a personal touch on the subject, also on the, about this opera as well.
