Acclaimed director Atom Egoyan talks about directing opera in general and his newest project, Feng Yi Ting, which is coming to the Gerald W. Lynch Theater tomorrow through Saturday for 7:30 p.m. performances as part of Lincoln Center Festival.
In this video, Tony Award-winning set designer Derek McLane discusses working with director Atom Egoyan on the designs for Feng Yi Ting, which will be at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater this Thursday through Saturday as part of Lincoln Center Festival.
The much anticipated Feng Yi Ting - a chamber opera composed by Guo Wenjing and directed by Atom Egoyan - comes to Lincoln Center Festival this Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. The New York Times’ Allan Kozinn said this of the production:
“Its orchestral interludes are steeped in Western tonality, occasionally with an angular modernist edge. But the vocal lines and some of the instrumental solos within the orchestral passages adhere to antique Chinese melodic styles, sometimes with an overtly microtonal approach to intonation. You might expect these competing systems to clash, but Mr. Guo produces otherworldly combinations in which familiarity and exoticism, vigor and elegance, are in constant flux.”
(Read the rest of Kozinn’s story on Feng Yi Ting and Guo Wenjing here.)
(Photo by © Julia Lynn)
Two thumbs up for Feng Yi Ting in both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal today!
Said The New York Times’ Allan Kozinn of the performance at the Spoleto Festival USA: “The production, by Atom Egoyan, with vividly colorful Chinese costumes by Han Feng and scenic design by Derek McLane, is as stunning as the music.”
WSJ’s Heidi Waleson also praised the production’s music: “In the orchestra, under the expert direction of Ken Lam, the slides of the bowed erhu, the tremolos of the pipa, and the distinctively breathy and reedy sounds of the Chinese flute and mouth organ were picked up, mimicked and expanded on by the Western orchestral instruments until it was hard to tell where the breaks were.”
Guo Wenjing’s Feng Yi Ting comes to Lincoln Center Festival on July 26-28.
Check out this recent Feng Yi Ting dress rehearsal at the Spoleto Festival USA, and get excited for the production to come to Lincoln Center Festival on July 26-28!
(Photo by © Julia Lynn)
More Feng Yi Ting news from Gramophone’s Olivia Giovetti:
“What’s engrossing was the music, laden with conflict and fraught with tension. Soprano Shen Tiemei and tenor Jiang Qihu sang in the traditional Peking and Sichuan operatic style. However, their stratospheric pitches and constricted tones clashed beautifully with a more typically Western score that blends a traditional orchestra with native instruments like the pipa and erhu. Deep rumbles arrive simultaneously knotted and untangled. Like Glass’s music, Feng Yi Ting (running until June 7 and stopping in New York at the Lincoln Center Festival, also under Redden’s directorship, in July) is characterised by an emotional neutrality that leaves the audiences to decide for themselves how they feel.”
(Photo by © Julia Lynn)
“Egoyan is a master storyteller, and he is the real auteur of this production, as he was able to capture the concept of the score and blow it up on the stage and screen, using technology seamlessly, with an eye and sensibility that channeled Bernardo Bertolucci and Sergio Leone,” wrote The Post and Courier in its review of Feng Yi Ting at The Spoleto Festival.
Guo Wenjing’s production will come to Lincoln Center Festival on July 26-28.
“I’ve really never immersed myself in a piece of Chinese mythology. The learning curve is extraordinary. I actually think it’s one of the best theatrical experiences I’ve ever had because it’s an unusual piece,” said filmmaker Atom Egoyan to The Post and Courier’s Andrew Johnson about directing The Spoleto Festival’s production of Feng Yi Ting, which had its American premiere last Sunday.
Feng Yi Ting is a Chinese opera composed by Guo Wenjing that will also be featured at this year’s Lincoln Center Festival on July 26-28. Read the entire story by clicking on the link above.
