Word: emperor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...scores are to the building of mood, the subtle underlining of character. But he was more than Zhang's regular composer; he was the director's cultured ears, and the one who set Zhang on the course that would eventually lead him to the Met and The First Emperor...
...ceremony installing the warlord as emperor, the weakened Jianli takes a frail swipe at his exalted friend-foe. Few people notice. "History will record that when you were installed, I attacked you," Jianli says, and the now-Emperor replies, Wrong. I write the history books. And they will say I kept you alive, because you are my eternal shadow." Jianli has poisoned himself, so as not to be anyone's shadow, and gasps out his last word: "Brother." To put the musician out of his misery, the Emperor ritually stabs him. Then we hear the anthem Jianli has composed. "Everlasting...
...score for The Emperor's Shadow was composed by Zhao Jiping. From the mid-80s to 2000, while Tan Dun was in the U.S., Zhao was the PRC's preeminent movie composer, working with most of the A-list directors. For Zhang Yimou he scored Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, Story of Qiu Ju and To Live. For Chen Kaige: Yellow Earth, The Big Parade, Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon and The Emperor and the Assassin. For Zhou Xiaowen: No Regrets and The Emperor's Shadow. For Sun Zhou: Heartstrings and Breaking the Silence. Of these...
...libretto, by Tan Dun and Chinese-American novelist Ha Jin, adheres to the contours of The Emperor's Shadow, but with a different ending: Jianli cuts out his own tongue, and the anthem he leaves to be sung is a slave song we heard at the beginning of Act 2. The writers have trouble marshalling the movie's dramatic pull; their lyrics don't put the personal conflicts across with the same clarity and intensity. Domingo, a trouper at 64, has the notes down but struggles with his enunciation. (Even though he's singing in English, we needed the subtitles...
...operas have play doctors, as the classic musicals often did? Old pros like George Abbott or Abe Burrows would join a show out of town, bring a fresh mind to the soft spots, punch up the book. By the time the thing opened on Broadway, it sang. The First Emperor could have used some outside help. For what disappoints me about the opera is not its music but its failure to transfer the thrilling drama of the movie to the stage...