His best-known works include the landmark 20-hour Kunqu opera, Peony Pavilion, which was hailed as one of the most important cultural events of the 20th century, and Monkey: Journey to the West, a circus/theater spectacle collaboration with the celebrated English virtual band, Gorillaz. He has pioneered a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary theatrical form with over 30 productions commissioned by world-class opera houses and festivals such as Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), The Royal Opera House (London), The English National Opera (London), Festival d‘Automne (Paris), Berlin Festival, Vienna International Festival, Opera Australia, and the Lincoln Center Festival (New York City). Like America at its best, Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is about shared cultural values and experiences.Ĭhen Shi-Zheng is a Chinese-born, US-based opera and film director. Our “Chinese story” is acted by performers of many backgrounds. My intention was to cast actors regardless of their ethnicity because I believe human experience is not exclusive but rather transcendental in nature. Over the past year, I have cast an ensemble of performers who not only have strong physical abilities but are willing to put in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to give their newly acquired martial arts training the integrity it deserves. Like a ritual, this communal experience is a new kind of musical theater. Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is a saga that combines spirituality, animism, and human emotion to explore generational shifts of culture and ideas. I wanted to create an allegory for the immigrant experience, transforming iconic Chinese images, movement, and ideas into an American context. After years of fixation, I thought it was time to reimagine the art form in 21st-century America. A half century later there are no fighting sequences in world cinema, superhero movies, television, and theater that are not based on traditional martial arts. In that clip, Lee attempts to explain the basis of martial arts, a form that was largely unknown in the United States at the time. When I was asked to make a new piece for The Shed, I showed my dear friend Alex Poots a video clip of Bruce Lee’s first audition reel for Paramount Studios in 1964. My passion was fueled by reading martial arts novels, including many books by one of the great authors of the genre, Jin Yong (Louis Cha). I have been fascinated by martial arts since I was a boy-by their explosive energy, meticulous precision, and flowing movement. Taught an identical martial art by their respective parents, the twins lead lives that are a mystery on many levels until the day they meet and discover their joint destiny. Eighteen years later, her fraternal twins, Little Phoenix and Little Dragon, grow up unknown to one another: one in a humble apartment in Flushing and the other in a penthouse on Fifth Avenue. Her journey to find herself led to betrayal, near death, and resurrection. Set in two time periods, in today’s Flushing, Queens, and in the near future, the heart of the story is about Little Lotus who was born and raised in a traditional household. The sect practices an ancient martial art in order to protect a secret treasure. Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is an American fable about an underground sect called the House of Dragon.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |