| Subtitle | opera in two acts |
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| Year(s) composed | 2008 |
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| Publisher | Schott Music |
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| Instrumentation | pic.2(2.afl).2.ca.3(2.Ebcl,3.bcl).bcl(cbcl).2.cbsn-4.3(1.pic tpt).3.btbn.1-timp.3perc(glsp, tub bells, vib, mar, s.d, 4tom-t, b.d, tri, handheld crash cym, tam-t, anvil, brake d)-hp.cel-str - Chinese instruments on stage: 2 suonas, 4 Chinese percussion players |
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| Duration | 125' |
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| Premiere | 13. September 2008 San Francisco, CA, San Francisco War Memorial Opera House (USA) · Conductor: Steven Sloane |
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| Commission | Commissioned by the San Francisco Opera, David Gockley, General Director |
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| Synopsis | The Bonesetter‘s Daughter is a multi-generational family epic that explores one family‘s history through three generations of mothers and daughters. The opera is set in China during the years before the Communist revolution, framed by the memories and forgotten history of an elderly Chinese mother in present-day San Francisco. The story sweeps from fable-like past to factual present, from Chinese village to urban America. Shifting times and locales are linked by a recurring quartet of women: a girl, a young woman, a mother and an ageless, ghost-spirit known as Precious Auntie. They are the bones of this family throughout time and become the mothers and daughters in each generation. |
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| Roles | Ruth Young Kamen (also Young LuLing) · mezzo-soprano - LuLing Liu Young · mezzo-soprano / contralto - Precious Auntie · KunJu singer - Art Kamen · baritone - Chang the Coffin-maker · bass - Taoist Priest (also Chef, Town Crier) · Chinese rock singer - Marty Kamen (also Lady Ina) · baritone - Arlene Kamen (also Lady Ina's parrot) · mezzo-soprano - Wang Tai-Tai · Chinese opera singer - Fia and Dory · Teenage Girls - Chang's three wives · soprano, 2 mezzo-sopranos - Chang's three sons · Supers - twelve Chinese acrobats - chorus |
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