Wang Xi-Zhi’s “Timely Clearly after Snowfall” consists of 28 characters full of implications and thus can be interpreted in different ways. When it is presented on stage, the simple letter is developed into this new opera that crosses through different times and spaces. The characters in the original work of calligraphy seem to connect with each other through the author’s powerful and artistic strokes that bring a three-dimensional existence to the two-dimensional structure of the characters. With a seemingly complex structure and a performance lasting for three hours, Sunlight after Snowfall, like the powerful strokes of the work of calligraphy of the same name, narrates the common fate of the characters who float in chaotic times and connect with each other as if due to some butterfly effect for their choices of settling down.
Sunlight after Snowfall is a collaborative work of the Guoguang Opera Company and National Symphony Orchestra. As for the arrangement of actors, there are both actors of Chinese Opera and opera actors. Tang Wen-Hwua, a famous actor of Chinese Opera who specializes in laosheng (aged male roles), Wu Bai Yu-Xi, a baritone, and Wei Hai-Min, another famous actor of Chinese Opera specializing in qingyi (demure female roles), perform together on stage. They play their characters and sing, sometimes solo, sometimes in turn or in chorus. The fusion of such singing, sometimes featuring Chinese singing skills and sometimes Western singing skills, harmonize together on stage to form a kind of multiple vocal performance which is a perfect way of presenting the complex story. As for the musical instruments, symphony orchestra instruments are played together with instruments used in both the orchestra group and the percussion group of traditional Chinese Opera. Though this combination is not a unique creation of the opera, under the arrangement of composer Zhung Yao-Guang, the grand scale of so many instruments highlights the feeling of forlornness and desolatation when facing the universe through the ancient tune of xi-pi-er-huang. In addition, the use of “a revolving stage” by the stage designer Wang Meng-Chao solves the difficulty of multiple scene-changing and at the same time presents the theme of wandering about and settling down metaphorically in a skillful way: “Where I can find love, I can find my home.”
