Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

Synopsis
The Bonesetter‘s Daughter is a multi-generational family epic that explores one family‘s history
through three generations of mothers and daughters. The opera is set in China during the years
before the Communist revolution, framed by the memories and forgotten history of an elderly
Chinese mother in present-day San Francisco. The story sweeps from fable-like past to factual
present, from Chinese village to urban America. Shifting times and locales are linked by a recurring
quartet of women: a girl, a young woman, a mother and an ageless, ghost-spirit known as
Precious Auntie. They are the bones of this family throughout time and become the mothers
and daughters in each generation.
The Bonesetter‘s Daughter
Pre-production photo by the San Francisco Opera
I’m often asked, “Isn’t this a Chinese Opera” My stated objective, before I wrote a note of music,
was to write this opera, an American opera with roots in China, in my own language and voice,
but make it feel like China. The opening came when I met Beijing Opera master percussionist Li
Zhonghua on my first trip to China. His imagination, musicianship and curiosity made me not just
want to make the opera feel like China, but to engage directly with Chinese artists. After meeting
Zhonghua, I knew I could not just “import” the Chinese percussion instruments as he had showed me
not only the vastness of his technique but the oneness of his vision: for him, there was no separation
between music, narrative, action and stage picture. Working together over the last four years, we
have developed a percussion language that is neither Chinese nor American, but a meeting of our
minds and an expression of our friendship. (Stewart Wallace)
181