''Madame White Snake'' is an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

with music by

Zhou Long Zhou Long (; born July 8, 1953) is a Chinese American composer. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Biography Zhou Long was born in Beijing, China. Born into an artistic family, he began studying piano from an early age. Due to the artist ...

and

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Cerise Lim Jacobs, published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. Awarded the 2011

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted i ...

, it was premiered on Feb. 26, 2010, by Opera Boston at the

Cutler Majestic Theatre The Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, is a 1903 Beaux Arts style theater, designed by the architect John Galen Howard. Originally built for theatre, it was one of three theaters commissioned in Boston by ...

. It is based on the

Legend of the White Snake The Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese legend centered around a romance between a man named Xu Xian and a female snake spirit named Bai Suzhen. It is counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales, the others being '' Lady Meng Jiang'', ' ...

and was created by Jacobs as a gift to her now late husband. The Pulitzer Committee described the opera as, "a deeply expressive opera that draws on a Chinese folk tale to blend the musical traditions of the East and the West."Brown, Joel (April 19, 2011).
Opera Boston production wins Pulitzer
, ''Boston.com''. Zhou stated, "I have been working very hard to blend the East and the West for years." The opera was performed, in English, in Beijing in October 2010. In China Zhou's 2010 English-language opera shares the same title as the traditional

Beijing opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines instrumental music, vocal performance, mime, martial arts, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became ...

version, ''

'', ''Báishézhuàn'', but is distinguished by the term "'' geju''" (Western opera) rather than "'' jingju''" (Beijing opera). Jacobs' first libretto and Zhou's first opera, it was the first opera commissioned by Opera Boston, co-commissioned by the

Beijing Music Festival The Beijing Music Festival (BMF) is an annual music festival held in Beijing which according to the Chinese Ministry of Culture (China), Ministry of Culture has become one of the most well-known musical events in the world, drawing international ...

Arts Foundation. Jacobs is a Chinese-American retired lawyer and Zhou is a Chinese-American composer. "Giving voice to sweeping

melodies A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term ca ...

worthy of

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

without sounding imitative, and employing such vocal effects as bent pitches, slides and

Sprechstimme (, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice"), more commonly known as speak-singing in English, are expressionist musical vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, is directly related to the operatic re ...

to suggest the unique idiom of

Peking Opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines instrumental music, vocal performance, mime, martial arts, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became ...

hou Hou or HOU may refer to: Places * Hou (Odder Municipality), a town in Denmark * Hellenic Open University, in Patras, Greece * Hounslow railway station (National Rail station code: HOU), London, England * A common abbreviation for the U.S. city ...

wove both aesthetics into a unique whole, creating a vivid and freestanding musical world of his own."(18 April 2011).
Zhou Long's Madame White Snake Awarded 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music
, ''OperaNews.com''. *Director: Robert Woodruff *Conductor:

Gil Rose Gil Rose is the founder and conductor of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), founder and General-Artistic Director of Odyssey Opera, Artistic Director of Monadnock Music Festival, Professor of Practice at Northeastern University, and Execu ...

* Xiao Ching:

Michael Maniaci Michael Maniaci (born May 3, 1976) is an American opera singer. Possessing a male soprano voice, Maniaci is noted for his claim to be able to sing into the upper soprano range without resorting to falsetto, an otherwise common phonation for men ...

* Madame White Snake: Ying Huang * Abbot Fahai: Dong-Jian Gong * Xu Xian: Peter Tantsits

Sources

External links

*
http://madamewhitesnake.org/
'.
The Birth of Madame White Snake
, ''YouTube.com''.
Ying Huang Ken Noda - Long Madame White Snake - Awakening Aria
, ''YouTube.com''. {{Authority control 2010 operas English-language operas Operas Pulitzer Prize for Music–winning works Works based on the Legend of the White Snake