Collaboration between Composer and Librettist on The Lotus Script, a Contemporary Chamber Opera from a Female Perspective

My most recent Composition Masterclass series was “Music Collaborations: Composers and Artists.” Day 3 was a special sharing session by composer Dr. Pui-shan Cheung and author Ms. Pansy Lai on their recent collaboration on the chamber opera The Lotus Script, which received the Best Serious Composition of the CASH Golden Sail Music Award 2024. The opera premiered at HKAPA Academy Studio Theatre on 15-16 March 2024.

Dr. Cheung states, “The Lotus Script is a monodrama, cross-media chamber opera written for soprano, violin, cello, clarinet, accordion, percussion, pipa, and creative technology media. Nushu, the women’s script (女書) is also known as Jiangyong Nvshu (江永女書), originally from Jiangyong County, Yongzhou, Southern Hunan Province, China (中國湖南省南部永州的江永). It is a type of script used exclusively by women. The Nushu (女書) characters are beautiful, long, and thin, with peculiar shapes and patterns. They have existed for more than hundreds of years. To pursue a more enlightened decoding of Nushu, The Lotus Script starts with an idea of feminine arts, inherits the tradition, creates the spirit of Nushu from a female perspective, and expresses the gentleness and beauty of women. We use modern cross-media technology and creative technology design, spanning East, West, traditional, minority, and modern music to show on the stage, presenting the beauty of Nushu and the cultural heritage of the ritual of crying marriage (哭嫁習俗).”

Four scenes tell the tragic story of the female character Bai Shui Nu:

Scene 1: Bai Shui Nu 白水女 She married Yixi Jun, but her husband and son died when she was twenty-seven. She frowned daily and worked hard to keep her daughter growing up.

Scene 2: Crying song 哭歌 She recalled singing "Crying Songs" with her sisters when she was married, recalling her life and the various sensations before leaving home.

Scene 3: Marrying songs 出嫁歌 She is ready to marry, and the village hall is set up with a good song hall. The lanterns in the hall are full of lights, and the table is full of rich candy snacks and local products.

Scene 4: Treasure Never Lost 永不失去的寶藏

The music was based on the libretto completed by Pansy in just two days.  The lyrics express the complicated feelings of the girl as she was married out by her parents to an unknown husband and his family: her fear, her loneliness, her hope, her dream, and her courage. Instead of accepting her fate, she decided to control her destiny: “The map of Destiny, I shall write.” Her hope at the end was that her child would grow up to be a kind person. Her child was her most significant treasure. Such a positive portrayal of female characters in opera is refreshing. It drastically differs from the female characters in Romantic operas, which were all tragic. Time has changed. It is more genuine when a lyricist and a composer with a female perspective write an opera about a female character.

Musically, to portray different metaphors of “crying,” the composer explained how she used musical instruments, such as a combination of bow pressure, tremolo, and Bartok’s snap pizzicato of string instruments, to achieve the sound effects.

Only three colors were used on stage visually: white, black, and red. The soprano and the dancers' costumes were white, which is unusual as the traditional color of Chinese bridal dress is red. White, on the other hand, is commonly used in funerals. What is the symbol behind this? It’s left for the audience to interpret. The red spotlights projected on the stage, and the Chinese percussion instruments portrayed the wedding ceremony.

Another interesting feature of this opera performance was the close distance between the stage and the audience. All the chairs were removed from the performance venue. The audience may move freely and stay close to the musicians during the performance; they were “inside” Bai Shui Nu’s world! The composer and the lyricist recalled that it was a touching experience for all involved.

The Lotus Script is significant in several ways:

1)      It is a chamber opera about a traditional female character written by a female composer and a female lyricist.

2)      It is a cross-media production that successfully combines East and West, traditional and contemporary.

3)      The economic size of the opera enables it to travel and perform in different places efficiently.

4)      The intimate setting closes the boundary between performers and the audience and turns the audience into part of the drama.

5)      It is culturally significant as it brings social awareness of a forgotten women’s script, which documents women’s lives in the old society where they were oppressed. It makes us further appreciate the greater freedom and independence women enjoy today after generations of struggle.

The Best Serious Composition of CASH Golden Sail Award recognizes its significance, and so will the public. We look forward to more performances of The Lotus Script in the future.