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ASIA SOCIETY PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE OF COMMISSIONED OPERA
THE FLOATING BOX: A STORY IN CHINATOWN
Five Performances October–November 2001
Composed by Jason Kao Hwang
Libretto by Catherine Filloux
Directed by Jean Randich
Conducted by Juan Carlos Rivas
Set design by Alexander Dodge
Lighting/Projection design by Clifton Taylor
Costume design by Linda Cho
Singers
Sandia Ang (Soprano)
Ryu-Kyung Kim (Mezzo-contralto)
Zheng Zhou (Baritone)
As part of its inaugural season celebrating the opening of the Asia Society’s fully renovated headquarters at 725 Park
Avenue (at 70th Street) in New York City — the new Asia Society and Museum— the Asia Society will present the world
premiere of the contemporary chamber opera The Floating Box: A Story in Chinatown. Commissioned by the Asia Society,
Museum of Chinese in the Americas, and Music From China, six performances will be held in the Society’s Lila Acheson
Wallace Auditorium at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, October 27 and 28, and Thursday–Sunday, November 1–4. Tickets
are $20 ($16 for Asia Society members); $10 for students/seniors; group discounts are available. Tickets can be purchased
at the Asia Society Box Office or by calling 212-517-ASIA.
Drawing upon oral histories Hwang and Filloux recorded in New York’s
Chinatown during 1998-99, the opera is the culminating work of Hwang’s three-year residency as composer-in-residence
at the Asia Society (1998–2000), supported by a Meet the Composer/New Residencies grant. The score has been composed
in consultation with Music From China, an ensemble dedicated to promoting both traditional and contemporary music for
Chinese instruments. The orchestra for the opera, made up of Chinese and Western instruments, include members of Music
From China and some of New York’s finest freelance instrumentalists. (The opera will be sung in English).
According to Rachel Cooper, Director for Performing Arts and Public Programs
at the Asia Society, “Through an innovative musical style — one that brings together both Chinese and Western instruments
— The Floating Box presents whole new possibilities for opera. It is an original story inspired by individual histories,
making it an expression of the community as well as a unique artwork. Through both vocal technique and melodic shape, the
qualities of the Chinese and English languages (along with the elusive vernaculars in between) are defined in each character’s
voice. In addition, the orchestration of both Chinese and Western instruments expresses both the emotional environment and
interior life of this Chinatown family. This extraordinary sonic palette provides the colors necessary to tell this story.”
Set in the 1980s, The Floating Box charts the journey of an immigrant family over continents, languages, and generations. It is the tale of one family’s loss, transformation, and survival. Eva/Yee-Wa was raised in the U.S. and knows nothing of her parents’ past in China. Her father is a cook on an American cruise ship and her mother has refused to learn English, retreating to piecework in their railroad apartment. Within the family itself there are three different stories. The father sacrifices his musical talent for the sake of his child. The mother never fully adapts, and lives in the past, cherishing old pictures. It is up to the daughter to uncover the secrets that bind them together so that she can move on. Although The Floating Box tells the story of one family, it speaks of the experience of countless immigrant families.
In the opera, various influences such as jazz, blues, rock, samba, Chinese opera, Gregorian chants and show tunes are interwoven into a single melodic language. The corresponding voices go beyond the operatic vocabulary into stylistic nuances of these genres. The orchestra consists of piccolo/flute/alto flute, Bb clarinet/bass Clarinet,
vibraphone, Chinese and “world” percussion, pipa (Chinese lute), accordion, huqin (two-string Chinese violins), and cello. In speaking of his intentions, Hwang said, “The resulting singular sound produced by these disparate instruments captures both the experience and specific place of the opera. These timbral combinations of Western and Chinese instruments create the voice of the Asian American experience as well as a three-dimensional picture of a family and of Chinatown.”
One of the most powerful inspirations for the opera came in the form of a “found object” at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, where the composer and librettist conducted many of their interviews with members of the local Chinatown community. In their permanent exhibition there is a composite portrait of a Chinatown family. It is a collage of faces amateurishly pasted into the image, with heads atop another’s body, dressed in fashionable Western clothes. These collages were common among immigrants of different places, revealing devotion to family across borders and seas, the courage and hard work of people who seek better lives for their children at all costs, and the simple, innocent dream of being reunited with ancestors. The themes embodied in this photograph are also embodied in The Floating Box.
The title of the opera is derived from a recurring image of a box in Filloux’s moving libretto that serves as a continuum in the piece. It refers to literal boxes and metaphorical boxes—an actual memory box with cut-out figures inside, a box of piecework hair ornaments on which the women work, the apartment in which the family lives, the boat on which the immigrants came to Chinatown, and to memory itself, the family’s hopes and dreams, the imagined and the real experiences, past, present and future. It is an evocative image that may inspire new interpretations and a new level of understanding of the Chinese immigrant experience.
The Floating Box: A Story in Chinatown is made possible with generous support from the The New York Community Trust, Meet the Composer/New Residencies, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Puffin Foundation, and the Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program. Performing arts programs at the Asia Society are supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional support for the Asia Society’s Cultural Programs is provided by the Friends of Asian Arts, Wallace – Reader’s Digest Funds, The Starr Foundation, the Booth Ferris Foundation, the Hazen Polsky Foundation, Inc., and the Harold J. and Ruth Newman Philanthropic Fund.
THE FLOATING BOX: A STORY IN CHINATOWN
Performances
Saturday and Sunday
October 27 & 28
Thursday, Friday and Saturday,
November 1, 2, 3 and 4 2001
At 8:00 pm
Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue, New York City
Tickets are $20 ($16 for Asia Society members); $10 for students/seniors
Group discounts are available.
Tickets can be purchased at the Asia Society Box Office or by calling 212-517-ASIA.
Related Events
A series of events will be held in conjunction with The Floating Box.
- Post-Performance Talk on October 28 and November 2. An informal discussion with Jason Hwang, Catherine Filloux, and Jean Randich at Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue, New York City. (Free with purchase of performance tickets.)
- Like Parent, Like Child?: Asian Immigrant Families Coping with Change on October 27 from 2:00–4:00 pm. A panel discussion on the issues that beset immigrants and their American-born children. Hosted by the Asia Society and the New York Times, in association with the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. It
will be held in Chinatown at the Chatham Square Regional Branch of the New
York Public Library, 33 East Broadway, New York City. (Free admission, space
is limited.)
- Roots & Revelations: Exploring Our Family Histories through the Creative Process on Tuesday, October 30 from 6:30-7:30 pm. A discussion with authors Winifred Chin and Lisa Huang Fleischman, at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, 70 Mulberry Street, 2nd Floor. ($5 non-members, free for members.)
- Workers’ Rights and Immigrant Communities on Thursday November 1 from 6:00–7:30 pm. A panel discussion at the Asia Society on the issues that Asian and Pacific Islander immigrant workers face in New York City, and the strategies used to address labor rights issues and their impact. ($10 nonmember, $7 Members, $5 Students.)
- Imagining Chinatown: Dramatizing Cultural Spaces on Saturday, October 20 at 5:00 pm, following Ma-Yi Theatre Company’s The Square. A discussion with
playwrights and directors from The Floating Box and The Square at the Public Theatre, 425 Lafayette Street, New York City. Co-presented with Museum of Chinese in the Americas. (Free admission).
Artists' Biographies
Jason Kao Hwang (Composer)
During his Meet the Composer Residency at the Asia Society, Mr. Hwang has composed for Music From China including Bending Duration, Breathing Distance and Interior Migrations. His educational work with high school students at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas was documented by WNYC’s Morning Edition. Mr. Hwang's ensemble, The Far East Side Band, has released two CDs, Urban Archaeology (Victo Records) and Caverns (New World Records). They have performed at the Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf Konfrontationen (Austria), the duMaurier Ltd. International Jazz Festival (Vancouver), International Festival Musique Actuelle (Victoriaville), Beijing International Jazz Festival, Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, Freer Gallery (Washington, D.C.), Visions Festival (NYC) and many other stages. His compositions for film include two feature documentaries for PBS, Sue Williams' China: Born Under the Red Flag and Judith Vecchione's Tug of War, The Story of Taiwan, and source music for Martin Scorcese's Kundun. Recently, CRI released Mr. Hwang's composition Flight of Whispers on eXchange: China, a compilation CD of Chinese American composers. As a violinist, he has performed on recordings including Anthony Braxton's 1996 Sextet (Istanbul) and 1995 Octet (NYC), Dominic Duval's The Navigator (Leo); Henry Threadgill's Come Save the Day (Columbia) and Butch Morris's Dust to Dust and Testament: A Conduction Collection (New World). Over the years, he has performed with numerous artists including Vladamir Tarasov, Reggie Workman, Makanda Ken MacIntyre, Sirone and William Parker.
Catherine Filloux (Librettist)
Catherine Filloux's play, Mary and Myra, received its premiere production at Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. CATF has commissioned her new play about Cambodia, to be produced in 2002. Catherine is the winner of the 1999 Roger L. Stevens award from The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays for her play Eyes of the Heart. Her screenplay by the same name was selected for the 1996 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and is the winner of the O'Neill's 1996 Eric Kocher Playwrights Award. She developed Eyes for Lifetime TV. Photographs from S-21, from the "The Museum Plays," was a finalist for the 1999 Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville and is the winner of the 1999 Nausicaa Franco-American Play Contest; it was produced in Paris, and recently appeared in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in Khmer and French, in tandem with Night Please Go Faster, a play which she developed with actors from Phnom Penh’s National Theatre. Photographs was also at Boston Center of the Arts, performed by Cambodian actors from the Lowell, Massachusetts community. Her other plays have been produced in New York and around the country. Her short plays will be published by Smith & Kraus. Filloux has developed an oral history project, A Circle of Grace, with the Cambodian Women's Group at St. Rita's Refugee Center in Bronx, New York. She was awarded a 2001 Artist’s Residency Grant from the Asian Cultural Council for her playwriting work in Cambodia. She received her French Baccalaureate in Toulon, France, and her M.F.A. from the Dramatic Writing Program at New York University. She is a member of New Dramatists.
Jean Randich (Director)
Jean Randich has been directing new work in diverse cultures for the past fifteen years. Recent credits: Drawn to Death, a three panel opera by Art Spiegelman and Phillip Johnston (Dartmouth College, Hopkins Center, 2001); The Unknown, a silent musical, (Page 73 Productions); Girl Under Grain (Winner: Best Drama, NY International Fringe Festival 2000); Travels with My Aunt (Portland Stage Company, Portland, ME); the 1999 Obie-cited He Who Says Yes; He Who Says No (NAATCO; NYC); Gum (Magic Theatre, San Francisco); Alice Down the Hole (Access Theater); and The Golden Door (Tenement Theater and NYC Fringe Festival). Jean has also directed at En Garde Arts (J.P. Morgan Saves the Nation), and the Dallas Theatre Center, as well as in Germany and Norway. Jean is the winner of the NEA/TCG Director Fellowship, and a Fox Foundation Fellowship. She has served as the George Abbott Resident Director at New Dramatists. She has written the libretto for a new opera, The Miraculous Phonograph Record, commissioned by the Dallas Opera. A professor of Drama at Bennington College, Jean received a Masters in Creative Writing from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama.
Juan Carlos Rivas (Conductor)
Following his 1998 debut at the Teatro Colón de Bogotá with L’elisir d'amore, Juan Carlos Rivas has conducted La fille du regiment and Romeo et Juliette. He has also served as music director for Eine Nacht in Venedig and La vie parisienne at the Teatro Camarín del Carmen. His other operatic engagements have included a gala presentation of scenes from Samson et Dalilah, Il Trovatore, La Boheme, Norma and other operas, and a production of Dido and Aeneas for which he served both as conductor and stage director. He has been conductor of the Orquesta de la Opera de Colombia since 1997. His experience with contemporary music includes conducting the Carlo Gesualdo Ensemble in several concerts of world premieres. Mr. Rivas was a winner of the Rosa Sabater Prize in the International Course of Spanish Music in Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 1992. In 2000 he was honored with a Fulbright Scholarship for study in the United States. Before commencing his solo conducting career, Mr. Rivas gained operatic experience as a chorus master, preparing over twenty productions for the Opera de Colombia since 1993. As Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master for the Caramoor Festival (Katonah, NY) he has participated in eight operatic productions since 1996. He has also collaborated with the Handel Project in the Manhattan School of Music and with the Tiroler Lander Theater in Austria. Among his future engagements Mr. Rivas includes conducting a production of Don Pasquale in April 2002 at Caramoor.
Commissioning Organizations
Asia Society is America’s leading institution dedicated to fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A nonprofit, nonpartisan educational institution, the Asia Society presents a wide range of programs including major art exhibitions, media programs, international conferences and lectures, and initiatives to improve elementary and secondary education about Asia. Since 1960, Asia Society’s Cultural Programs division has been one of the country’s leading centers devoted to the visual and performing arts of Asia. As a part of the Society’s mandate to serve as a bridge between the peoples of America and Asia, one of the goals of the Cultural Programs division is to present contemporary work from Asia and highlight work by emerging Asian American artists.
Recent projects of the performing arts program include commissioning and producing Forgiveness by Chen Shi-Zheng, Akira Matsui and Eve Beglarian; Empty Tradition/City of Peonies by choreographer Yin Mei and composer Tony Prabowo; presentations of renowned Iranian singer Sharam Nazeri; the Mongolian musical ensemble Altai Hungai; the national tour of Ratan Thiyam’s Chorus Repertory Theatre of Manipur; and Cloudgate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Upcoming projects include the world premiere of Lady Wenji, by Bun-Ching Lam and Xu Ying, directed by Rinde Eckert.
Museum of Chinese in the Americas, located in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown, is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and presentation of the history of Chinese in the Americas. The Museum has an extensive collection of primary resource material on Chinese American history and culture, including oral histories, photographs, documents, personal and organizational records, sound recordings, textiles, artifacts, and a library with over 2,000 volumes covering Asian American topics. The Museum’s full calendar of exhibits and public programs enables people of all backgrounds to explore the complexity and diversity of the American experience.
Music From China is an extraordinary musical ensemble that invokes the delicacy and power of both traditional and contemporary Chinese music. Based in the U.S., this world-class ensemble introduces audiences to the best of Chinese music both past and present. Founded in 1984, Music From China has commissioned and performed over 70 new works by 44 composers and is a major contributor to the development of new Chinese music. Music from China gives nearly 150 presentations a year throughout the East Coast and has been recognized for its contributions to the literature of new music for Chinese instruments.
Asia Society Internet Sites and Resources
The Asia Society is a leader in the use of communications technology and the Internet to reach and connect people
around the world. The Society's Web sites, which have earned more than a dozen national awards for excellence,
include:
www.AsiaSociety.org - provides information about the Society's programs, exhibitions, and permanent
collection, as well as general background on the Society.
www.AskAsia.org - is one of the premiere resources for K-12 educators and students interested
in Asian and Asian American studies.
www.AsiaSource.org - presents interpretation of breaking news stories, analysis of trends in Asia,
guides to Asian visual and performing arts, access to country profiles, and more.
www.AsiaBusinessToday.org - provides knowledgeable, unbiased information on a range of issues including
US-Asia trade, technology developments, and global finance.
www.AsiaFood.org - online resource on Asian cuisines featuring two searchable databases of over
500 recipes and glossary terms.
The interconnected sites offer enormous resources of information on Asia, including background and interpretation
of breaking news stories, analysis on trends in Asia and guides to Asian visual and performing arts, as well as
access to country profiles and experts on all aspects of Asian public affairs, history, and culture. The renovation
will enable the Society to use interactive technologies to more effectively promote communication between the peoples
of Asia and America.
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