San Francisco Opera unveils The Monkey King

Legend finds a new stage, Lia Zhu reports in San Francisco.

The monkey king, one of the most beloved characters in Chinese literature, is set to make his Western operatic debut. The legendary figure from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West will leap onto the stage of the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco in November, marking not only an artistic achievement but also a moment of cultural exchange between East and West.

Commissioned by the San Francisco Opera in partnership with the Chinese Heritage Foundation of Minnesota, the production represents the first opera to be sung in both English and Chinese. The opera's premiere follows the company's successful adaptation of another Chinese classic, Dream of the Red Chamber, which debuted in 2016 and toured China in 2017 to widespread acclaim.

The Monkey King draws from the opening chapters of Journey to the West, focusing on the ambitious Sun Wukong — a monkey born from stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices.

The story follows his rise to become ruler of the monkeys and his audacious challenges to the gods of sea and heaven in his relentless quest for immortality.

"Many scoff at his aspirations, but he is set on proving them wrong with his signature cunning and charm," explains the opera's synopsis. "He wins every battle against legendary warriors, but the respect he longs for is always out of reach."

The narrative culminates with his rebellion against heaven, resulting in his imprisonment under a mountain by Buddha for 500 years — where he remains trapped until freed by the monk Tang Sanzang, setting the stage for the epic "journey to the west".

San Francisco Opera's General Director Matthew Shilvock believes this character will resonate deeply with American audiences.

"I think in America there will be a lot of resonance, because it's an action hero story, and one with great depth behind it," Shilvock told China Daily. "There is something so inherently appealing about this character and his great strength and courage, his mischievousness and irreverence, and ultimately, he's there helping guide this incredibly sacred journey. So he's got all of these layers for audiences to go into."

A fusion of artistic traditions

What makes this production particularly innovative is its blend of traditional Chinese and contemporary Western artistic elements. The opera combines classical operatic performances with puppetry, dance and elements of Peking Opera to create what Shilvock describes as "a complete feast for the senses" with "accessible and beautiful" music and "spectacular, playful and energetic" visuals.

The opera's composer Huang Ruo, who has long been interested in bringing the monkey king to the stage, found personal motivation in creating a Chinese superhero figure for Western audiences. Having observed his own children surrounded by Western superheroes like Spider-Man and Batman, Huang saw an opportunity to introduce the monkey king as an alternative role model — not just for his children but for a broader audience as well.

The creative team faced significant challenges in adapting this classic tale for the operatic stage. "It's been very important to us that we do this as authentically as possible. One of the important questions which we had to answer was that those first few chapters of Journey to the West that we are covering in the opera are all action. It's just go, go, go, go, go," Shilvock said.

This presented a fundamental challenge for the operatic form. "In the opera, you want moments where you stand back and you take a pause and reflect, a chance to internalize and to have an emotional response. So we knew we needed to find a way to achieve that in the opera," Shilvock noted.

The solution came from composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang, who incorporated six Buddhist sutras into the action. This innovative approach means that the monkey king's adventures — from the depths of the sea to his epic battle with the gods in heaven — are balanced by moments of repose with the Goddess Guanyin and a chorus of Bodhisattvas reflecting on the monkey king's progress in Buddhist sutras.

Chinese soprano Zhang Meigui, who previously starred as Dai Yu in Dream of the Red Chamber, returns to play Guanyin, the goddess of compassion. Her aria All Dharmas Are Equal is already available on the San Francisco Opera's website, offering a preview of the production's musical richness.

"It'll be the first time that we've had Chinese sung on the opera house stage. These Buddhist sutras are all sung in Chinese, which I think will be really beautiful," said Shilvock.

Bringing the fantastical world of the monkey king to life on stage presented extraordinary technical and creative challenges. The production team had to develop innovative solutions to depict magical elements central to the story, such as the monkey king's ability to expand and shrink his magical staff and his ultimate imprisonment by Buddha's hand.

To meet those challenges, the opera company assembled an accomplished team of designers and choreographers, many from Chinese traditions. They enlisted Peking Opera movement specialist Jamie Guan to advise the team and local puppeteer Basil Twist as the set and puppetry director.

The team's creative solutions include the use of bioluminescent fabric to create glowing sea creatures for the scene where the monkey king visits the dragon king Ao Guang in his underwater palace.

For the iconic moment when the monkey shrinks a big pole holding up the palace, which becomes his magic staff, the team employs "an old-fashioned theatrical magic" of gradually letting the curtains close in on the light source, which makes the pole look smaller and smaller.

Perhaps most ingeniously, the production utilizes different representations of the monkey king. "We have a number of different monkeys — a singing monkey, a martial arts monkey and a puppet monkey, and the three of them will interchange depending on what we need the monkey to do," Shilvock explained.

The puppetry extends beyond the character representations to help transform the set itself. One of the most significant challenges the team faced was depicting Buddha's hand imprisoning the monkey king — a pivotal moment in the story.

"How do you do that on stage and make it feel like this great moment?" Shilvock asked. The solution emerged through experimenting with puppetry techniques "to create the idea of this hand closing in on somebody".

"From the music to the visuals and then the set, I think we're creating something very special coming to life," said Shilvock.

Cultural bridge

The new production builds on the success of the San Francisco Opera's previous adaptation of a Chinese classic, Dream of the Red Chamber. After its 2016 world premiere in San Francisco, that production toured China in 2017, performing in Hong Kong, Beijing, Wuhan and Changsha to enthusiastic audiences.

"There were really strong reviews, and a real pride that this work of Chinese literature had gone to America and was coming back," Shilvock recalled. "It was wonderful to see that great energy, and we really worked hard to make sure that it was done with great respect and great honoring of the story."

Interestingly, when composer Bright Sheng anticipated translating the opera into Chinese for its China tour, he received unexpected feedback. "The strong message was: No, we want it in English, because it more clearly shows that this has been a piece of cultural diplomacy. It has been a cultural export from China to America and made into an opera in America. And there was a huge amount of shared pride between the two countries," said Shilvock.

The Chinese audiences responded enthusiastically, purchasing tickets as soon as they became available. According to the Chinese Heritage Foundation, "The two performances at the Hong Kong Arts Festival sold out in two days. The same held true for each of the two performances in Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan."

The late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the first Chinese American mayor of the city, played a critical role in facilitating the tour through numerous trips to Beijing — efforts that both Shilvock and the Chinese Heritage Foundation acknowledge as vital to this "cultural diplomacy".

"It was both an artistic success and a diplomatic success, a wonderful example of a work of art being able to speak with such universality between two different countries," Shilvock reflected.

With The Monkey King set to premiere on Nov 14, the San Francisco Opera is already in preliminary discussions with Chinese partners about bringing the new production to China, hoping to build on the momentum established in 2017 and to tap into China's growing enthusiasm for opera.

"Look at what's happening in China and the real growing energy around opera. The opera houses that are being built in China at the moment are extraordinary," said Shilvock ahead of a trip to Shanghai, where he would explore the opportunities of bringing the new opera to China.

He specifically highlights the Shanghai Grand Opera House, a new landmark of the metropolis expected to be completed this year. "This new opera house in Shanghai looks like it could become one of the great opera houses of the world. And I think there is a real hunger, a real energy, a real commitment to opera in Shanghai and across China," he said.

The development of opera infrastructure in China represents a unique cultural phenomenon, according to Shilvock. "There are so many great opera houses and performing arts centers being built in China in a way that's not happening anywhere else in the world," he said.

"You just look at this incredible pride the Chinese cities are taking in the opera house and what it means to have a place where people can gather and come and experience culture and shared stories."

The San Francisco Opera, as the closest

major opera company to China, sees itself in a unique position to engage with China's growing interest in the art form. The company has historical ties to Shanghai and was one of the first Western opera companies to visit China after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), developing a relationship with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Even before Dream of the Red Chamber, the San Francisco Opera had successfully adapted Chinese American writer Amy Tan's novel The Bonesetter's Daughter in 2008, demonstrating a commitment to works that resonate with Asian and Asian American audiences.

For Shilvock, the productions represent more than artistic achievements — they are cultural bridges in an era often defined by division. "We're in a time period where it's so easy to focus on differences, and a lot of political discourses about differences. I think if we can find things in the world that bring us together and that remind us that we are all human beings, then we all have the same emotions," he said.

As The Monkey King prepares for its world premiere, Shilvock sees it as part of a broader cultural exchange that strengthens bonds between nations.

"I think it's particularly exciting when you can have a piece that travels between countries and honors the cultural heritage of, in this case, China, and brings that to life in America. I'm excited to see how pieces, like The Monkey King and Dream of the Red Chamber, not just to have a presence there, but to have that bond artistically as well," Shilvock said.

Contact the writer at liazhu@ chinadailyusa.com