San Francisco Opera has a hit with Huang Ruo's spectacular 'Monkey King'

San Francisco — San Francisco Opera’s deed caller opera, Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King,” which had its last show Sunday astatine War Memorial Opera House, rapidly became the hottest amusement successful town, each its performances sold out. It was the speech of the town, an opera with a small thing for everyone, an opera that that stands for thing culturally, spiritually and ethically. It operates astatine the intersections of popular creation and high-ish art, of the ineffable and profane, of radicalism and die-hardism. It is fittingly multicultural for a multicultural city. It invites you to permission the theatre feeling amended astir the world.

Yet what makes this perchance the astir important caller opera of the twelvemonth is not Huang’s agreeably businesslike — and erstwhile successful a portion inspired — score, which incorporates Western and accepted music. Nor is it David Henry Hwang’s user-friendly libretto based connected the precocious Ming Dynasty Chinese classic, “Journey to the West.” The imaginable this opera signals is for a large taste alteration for San Francisco.

In the greenish country of the opera location astatine the Nov. 20 performance, laminitis and CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, and his wife, Lori Huang, announced a $5-million acquisition to San Francisco Opera to assistance money the accumulation of the “Monkey King,” which the institution commissioned, and a committedness to proceed an yearly $5 cardinal publication to the company. That whitethorn look similar pouch alteration for Nvidia, having 3 weeks earlier became the archetypal institution successful the satellite valued astatine $5 trillion (which is 1 cardinal times $5 million). But 1 tiny measurement for a spot shaper is simply a large leap for opera and Silicon Valley, wherever arts philanthropy has not been a meaningful priority.

Dragon Palace of the Eastern Sea successful the San Francisco Opera premiere of Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King” astatine War Memorial Opera House.

(Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera)

San Francisco Opera good acceptable the signifier for this by going each retired successful connecting “Monkey King” with the city’s ample Chinese assemblage done assorted outreach programs portion besides tapping into the mode Chinese civilization has agelong been a pervasive influence, and particularly done music, successful San Francisco life.

Early successful the period the composers Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison regularly visited productions of Peking Opera, which is — similar “Journey to West” — an innovation of 17th period China and inactive regularly revived. It was acknowledgment successful important portion to Cowell that we came to person the genre we telephone satellite music. Harrison past made California a main originator of the hybridization of Eastern and Western music.

San Francisco Opera was precocious to the crippled (it has yet to signifier a Harrison opera) but the institution was a pioneer successful the fusing of jazz and opera with Gunther Schuller’s “The Visitation” successful 1967. In 2016, the institution gave the premiere of Bright Sheng’s “Dream of the Red Chamber,” which is, similar “Monkey,” based connected a classical Chinese caller and has a libretto by Hwang.

“Red Chamber” proved palmy capable for a uncommon revival successful 2022, but it ne'er became the benignant of sensation that “Monkey” boasts. “Monkey” forgoes the much integral hybridization, uncovering sensation successful piling connected arsenic overmuch connected arsenic possible.

Kang Wang arsenic Monkey King with Basil Twist’s puppet horses successful the San Francisco Opera premiere of Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King” astatine War Memorial Opera House.

(Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera)

The crippled fundamentally sticks to the archetypal 7 chapters of the 100-chapter novel, which concerns an engagingly impulsive monkey who obtains superpowers and, to support his monkey community, enjoys 1 wily escapade aft another. But by getting distant with anything, Monkey’s ego grows. He often doesn’t deliberation of others and does what helium wants, often without caring astir consequences. After going done endless battles and conflicts successful his journeys with a Buddhist monk (fodder for animated series, comics, films, tv serials, Chinese operas and a celebrated stone opera by Damon Albarn), Monkey yet finds enlightenment.

In Diane Paulus’ accumulation for San Francisco, Monkey is portrayed by an opera singer, an acrobatic dancer and a puppet. The stars of the amusement go much than the performers, who are each susceptible of spectacle, but besides Basil Twist, helium of the puppetry and fantastical sets, and choreographer Ann Yee. Huang’s erstwhile enclosure opera, “Book of Mountain and Seas,” which L.A. Opera, successful collaboration with Beth Morrison Productions, staged past year, was besides made magical by Twist.

Each of the caller opera’s 5 scenes successful Act 1 and 3 successful Act 2 are wondrous worlds of their own. Monkey is calved from a stone. Seeking eternal life, helium learns the concealed of 72 Transformations from a venerated Buddhist teacher and past becomes an irreverent show-off. After tricking a Dragon King, Monkey heads to Heaven, wherever helium wreaks havoc with the Jade Emperor, gobbles down precious 9,000-year-old magical peaches and gives himself the title, arsenic vainglorious person of the Monkey kingdom, of “The Great Sage, Equal to Heaven.”

Buddha steps in, imprisoning Monkey nether a upland and forcing him to survey sutras for 500 years. In the novel, the travel past begins. In the opera, Monkey goes consecutive to the Land of the Bliss successful a country of operatic magnificence.

Huiwang Zhang arsenic the dancer Monkey King successful the San Francisco Opera premiere of Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King” astatine War Memorial Opera House.

(Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera)

That magnificence overpowers everything that went earlier it, which includes fabulous dance, arresting puppetry and outstanding singing actors, including Kang Wang, arsenic Monkey, an awesome juggler successful his ain right.

Huang’s people is each implicit the map. The libretto is mostly successful vernacular English, but for choral interjections of the Buddhist “Diamond Sutra,” sung successful Chinese. Those chants are beauteous, arsenic is the euphony for the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin (soprano Mei Gui Zhang) and, making his quality astatine opera’s end, Buddha (bass-baritone Jusung Gabriel Park).

Most of Huang’s vocal writing, to suit the text, is conversational; fractional the clip helium has prepared you to foretell what enactment comes next. The orchestra, adroitly conducted by Carolyn Kuan, includes Chinese instruments arsenic good Western, but it is the Chinese ones that bring beingness to the score. Monkey’s seizure comes astir by his being believably beguiled by the dependable of the lute-like pipa.

The country of Bliss that comes retired of nowhere, with Buddha and Guanyin successful Heaven supra a sutra-chastened Monkey, is wherever Huang’s euphony becomes inspired. Power unsocial is not enough, Monkey has learned. Only having fixed up ego and each attachments has helium obtained the bosom of compassion. Joy emanates successful sight, dependable and movement.

On a transformational opera stage, Huang and Hwang nonstop a connection to different Huang, and 1 of the astir almighty radical successful the world: “Power is not enough.”