You must have read or heard of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. The 12 between them is very painful. But can you imagine the two singing opera in English instead of speaking poetic Chinese? Jia and Lin are two 13 from the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber(《红楼梦》), which was considered to be 14 by Cao Xueqin, a novel master. Now the book has been 15 into an English-language opera. The opera was first 16 in September, 2016 in San Francisco, U S. In 2017, it came to Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan.
The book has 120 chapters (章) and several hundred characters. But opera writer David Henry Hwang cut down the 17 of main characters to just seven. Hwang, a Chinese-American, focused 18 the story between Jia and Lin and tried to write a heartbreaking tragedy (悲剧) that everyone would understand.
The art director Timmy Yip compared Lin to water and gave her a light green costume (服装). When Lin shows up on stage, there is usually water around 19 on the stage.
The creators 20 it to be a meaningful job to introduce a Chinese classic to Western audience (观众).