Why I really really disliked the Bonesetter's Daughter at SF Opera

I really wanted to like it. Love it even. My friend Kat and I went to the final dress rehearsal for the much-anticipated The Bonesetter's Daughter opera which will be having its world premiere this coming Saturday. To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect...I knew there were going to be elements of Chinese music incorporated into the piece, as well as of course, Amy Tan's libretto adapted from her best-selling novel.

So, with an open (and somewhat excited) mind, Kat and I settled into the 2 hour, 40 minute performance. All I can say is, OUCH. Without giving too much away, here are all the things that really, really bothered me.

• The music was this droning, dissonant, minor-key-overkill that pretty much continued throughout the entire performance. I'm not asking that it has be super flowery given the subject matter, but there at least needs to be *one* amazing aria for the obviously-super talented performers to show off a bit. There was no real musical climax, and by the second hour in, my head was just hurting from all the disonance and cacaphony. You just felt troubled and unresolved the whole time. Maybe that was the point. *sigh*
  
  
• The libretto. Oh, Amy Tan, I respect you a lot as a writer, but "I will fill your hole...all your holes belong to me?" during a rape scene? That's just distasteful.
  
  
• The Chinese-American cliches. I can't pinpoint any particular example, but the overemphasis on bad grammar and Chinese stereotypes just annoyed me. Combine that in opera form and it just seems comical. For a supposedly very serious and sad story. It. Didn't. Work.
  
  
• What are you trying to be? Avante garde and modern? Traditional east-contemporary west fusion? There wasn't a strong point of view one way or another. And I didn't feel any emotion for, or connections to the characters -- which is really unfortunate!
  

So the saving grace is that the performers were really good, and we saw strong performances by almost everyone in the cast. I hope people who go to the SF Opera for the first time to see this particular opera don't get turned off by it and dismiss the company as a result -- I honestly don't think this is a good reflection of the usual calibre of performances put on by the SF Opera. *sigh*