Atom Egoyan Gives Chinese Opera a Western Look

By Barbara Chai

As director Atom Egoyan films ?Devil?s Knot,? a feature about the West Memphis Three, his other directorial project, a Chinese opera, will open later this month in New York.

?Feng Yi Ting? is the true story of Diao Chan (played by Shen Tiemei), a courtesan?caught in a rivalry between an aristocrat and his godson during the Han Dynasty. The 45-minute opera is unique for its pentatonic score composed by Guo Wenjing, and for Egoyan?s visual techniques such as shadow projections and traditional shadow puppetry.

The opera, performed in Chinese with subtitles, opens July 26 at the Lincoln Center Festival. Egoyan talked to Speakeasy recently from Atlanta, during a production break from filming ?Devil?s Knot.?

You?ve done many operas before, but this is your first experience with a Chinese opera.

I think most people?s first experience with a Chinese opera. That?s also exciting, to see that tradition and ability to reinvent a little bit of it. One of the things that I saw from the recordings of Chinese opera and certainly in talking to the singers is that it?s for the most part presented visually in a very straightforward manner. It?s broadly lit and it feels very unusual from a Western perspective, so I think it?s also this marriage of certain Western theatrical ideas blending with this very unusual musical piece.

How did you arrive at the idea of using shadow projections?

The shadow projections are something I played with in a couple other productions. I?m very interested in those circumstances in which a character is able to manipulate something on stage which is able to enhance and give us entry into their state of mind. This just seemed like a really interesting way to do that. In this case, we don?t have much connection to the Han Dynasty but we do know about the Terracotta Soldiers. It?s almost a visual clich? in the West so I felt that would be an interesting thing to enjoin to the idea, these endless parades of Terracotta figures that are projected.

How did you direct Shen Tiemei ? did you direct her gestures and inflections or did you give her a lot of freedom?

I think once I understood that she was actually very comfortable with her body and her gestures, and looking at gestures she would use in her tradition, and then enhancing that. You?re also dealing with two different traditions, one [singer] is coming from Beijing opera, one is coming from a Sichuan opera, and they have their own very different gestures and different ways of approaching character work. That was also an immersion into that as well and understanding what those gestures meant and using the time we had to shift and try different gestures. And then also this very unusual experiment of what looks like ? in ?Eh Joe,? the piece I did a few years ago at Lincoln Center, we had a live projection of Liam Neeson?s face in close-up, so what he was doing on the stage was actually being enhanced and projected as well at the same time. It?s a very unusual coordination between the live performance and the projected image and so that needed to be carefully rehearsed.

Did you approach this opera differently because it?s a Chinese opera?

I think so. I think I was really aware of being able to use a different dramaturgy than I would with a Western opera. You have this character, the male character, Lu Bu. He is a puppet in a way and he?s responding and acting in a very mannered way. Mannered in terms of this play between something which is really in her head, the whole piece. It?s not naturalist by any means. It?s very expository and that was one of the huge challenges. So it?s not like a traditional aria where we?re emotionally invested in that moment ? we?re not, really. It?s not tied into the moments that signify and elicit a traditional operatic response, so that did mean a completely different approach. I still find it really interesting how this is a story that I think a Chinese audience knows. It?s very well-known, it?s a little like doing a Verdi production, or one of the Shakespeare pieces. But it?s new to us ? we don?t know this story, we know this type of story and it seems to conform to certain operatic tropes. But it?s still being told for the first time and I was very aware of that as we were presenting it.

After Lincoln Center will it continue on elsewhere, such as Asia?

Well this is the great hope. We?re really excited about that possibility, of traveling it through China. Everyone?s sort of exploring those possibilities. It is a show that can travel. It?s pretty straightforward as long as the technologies are available and the spaces are available, then it can actually travel. It is written very specifically for these singers as well. There are certain vocal techniques which are really unusual. I think an American audience should feel really lucky that these two singers are here and performing it because I don?t think there?s many other people in the world who could do it. So, if they?re committed, and I know they?re both really excited about touring it in their country, that would be an amazing experience. I?ve never been to mainland China so it would be a crazily interesting way to explore it.

Follow Barbara on Twitter: @barbarachai

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/07/05/atom-egoyan-gives-a-chinese-opera-a-western-look/?mod=WSJBlog

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