San Francisco
Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King,” which had its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera on Friday, successfully fuses two very different traditions. Based on the opening chapters of “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en, a foundational Chinese novel from 1592, it presents its rebellious, trickster antihero—a monkey born from a magic stone, who challenges gods and rulers—in all his colorful, anarchic glory. Mr. Huang skillfully manipulates the musical language of Western opera, adding only gongs, Chinese cymbals and a pipa (a plucked instrument) to the orchestra, to conjure up the spirit of Chinese opera.
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