PAN YU LIN

Le Drame de Pan Yu lin, a Chinese ‘avant-garde’ early 20th Century Painter

La peintre Yu lin (in madarin with english subtitles)
Playwright: An Chi Wang/Composer: An Chang Chien
Conductor: Wing Sie Yip/Stage direction: Juliette Deschamps
Musical interpretation by the National Symphony Orchestral
With Chu Tai Li (in alternance with Mewas Kin) as Yu lin
Hao Jiang Tian (in alternance with Wu Bei Yu Hsi) as Mister Pan
Mariolin Xu as Yu Lin Classmate; Chong Boon Liau as principal Liu
Jo Pei Weng as the model and Shiau Cheng Kung as the model’s brother
Duration: 2H35 (20 minutes intermittence)
At the NTCH, Tauwan, Until the 11th July – 19:30 PM except Sunday at 14:30PM

 

Pan Yu lin (1895-1977), also known under the name of Zhang Yu Lin, as she was a prostitute in a brothel in Shanghai in the early 20TH century then Pan Tzan Hua official’s concubine, was also a famous Chinese painter whose paintings were the object of a vivid controversy between the defenders of traditional Chinese painting and modern Chinese painting. The topic of her paintings was mainly nude women portrayed in magnificent but unbelievable postures. As artist, she expressed the complex inner being of women in a very straight, truthful and sensual stroke blush with bright and red- yellow colors. She chocked the audience with her work, qualified as obscene and vulgar, indecent work, specially her first nude (which leads the model to kill herself, because of the uprightness of a moralist society that made her feel so ashamed) and her painting called ‘the entanglement’ (questioning the place of modern art in traditional Chinese society). As she was rejected by the Chinese society – she was a free thinker as her true beloved lover, Mister Pan, her defender and protector who encouraged her in raising herself as a painter-, she lived most of her life in Paris, France, where she received many awards and recognition prizes, dedicating her whole life to arts.

The Opera, a contemporary one, deals with many subtopics as the place of women in traditional Chinese society – women had to be good wives or prostitutes, they could not live by themselves as nowadays (even the weight of tradition is still influent in Chinese society) and constantly need men care even in the 20’s; the gap existing between society – the pressure of society on people and its refusal for any changes- and artists – leading society towards changes as they have some kind of foresight of the future as visionary prophets; the influence of medias on people’s life showing the paparazzi attitude of many journalists, always looking for sensational stories, and art critic judgment; the human weakness through the character of the virgin suicide model and Mister Pan who prefers at the end the warmness of his sweet home, letting her going back to Paris alone to embrace her destiny as an ’exilée’ in a foreign but friendly country (the final scene shows her as Moïse crossing the river to join the Jews home land in the Bible).

However, it is a lyrical ode to creativity and arts, the power of creation, an elegy dedicated to a marvelous Chinese painter embodied with great talent by the famous soprano, Chi Tai Li on the opening day. Besides her, we could appreciate the profound and hypnotic voice of the charming and elegant (baritone-)bass, Hao Jiang Tian who incarnates with cleverness and sensitivity Yu Lin’s lover. Chong Boon Liau who incarnates Principal Liu – a very amazing character- is a fantastic tenor; the promising and really talented young mezzo soprano, Jo Pei Weng, personifies with grace and beauty the model. Her acting, when she appears in a long red dress (elegant costumes signed by famous Sophie Hong who learned Haute Couture in France), is magnificent (the scene is very poetic); among all the singers, even their singing was really good, she was the one who sang in a more theatrical way.

In the art direction, we could be a little deceived by the acting of the singers: mostly, they sang in front of audience – which is no more in use in France and Europeans countries since Maria Callas’ incarnation of ‘Tosca’ in Puccini’s Opera)-, without playing, just accompanying their voice with their hands. What a pity the stage direction was too smooth (for example, the scene in which Pan joins her in France is too polite even in their kissing). Also, we could not feel, from the depth of her soul, all the starving passion of Yu Lin for painting, especially in her acting (when she cried out her despair after the death of her model who was her soul mate she is too melodramatic or when she sang the heavenly music of Suzhou river, she might put more vividness and intensity in the acting to express fully Yu Lin’s enjoyment) – even her voice is splendid and her moving in some scenes is really good.

At least, some parts of the stage direction are very interesting, especially the ones with the chorus: the group scenes are successful and very well directed and some other scenes are very funny, for example the steamed bun one or the brothel scene (a very delightful one, especially when the three red dressed women sang ‘kun opera’ and ‘Beijing opera’, under the eyes of their owner, very funny with her black long crop, moving her body with sensual provocation). The stage design, with its high double face columns (white and mirror looking, reflecting the lights and characters as if they where the puppets of fate), quite modern, suits the Opera very well and offers the possibilities of video screening. A beautiful video presents Yu Lin’s paintings on the back wall of the stage, illuminated by colorful rainbow like lights. That allows us to know more and appreciate her work. The musical training is without any doubt very precise and ‘hao li ay’.

To conclude, the audience really enjoyed the Opera on the opening day: so many talents, many good ideas, even if the rhythm of the stage direction is a little bit slow in some moments, but the music with its leitmotiv that makes us think at Puccini’s opera (‘Madame Butterfly’ and ‘La Bohème’) mixes with ability and skill traditional Chinese music, especially the strings, and symphonic western music, especially the very ‘vériste’ use of the brass instruments and drums in the more ‘classical’ parts, including French cancan dance and accordion in the French style. We could appreciate also that the leading male role is dedicated to a baritone or bass singer, not in use in Western Opera in which the leading role is always incarnate by a tenor. And we warmly recommend you this World Première at the CKS National Theatre. DVDM

More: http://nso.ntch.edu.tw