-- China’s first poem-opera, The Hegemon's Farewell: Xiang Yu and His Beauty Yu, after its premiere on May 8 in Xi’an, China, debuted at China Night 2025 of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
The story depicts the decisive battle between the armies of Chu and Han from December 203 BC to January 202 BC. The Han forces laid a ten-sided ambush, trapping the Chu troops in a desperate situation marked by the haunting melodies of "Songs of Chu from All Sides" — a psychological tactic that shattered their morale.
In this life-and-death extremity, Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Chu, and his beloved Beauty Yu co-created an eternal tragedy: Beauty Yu committed suicide with Xiang Yu's sword, sacrificing herself for love and loyalty. Xiang Yu, refusing to cross the Wu River to retreat, chose death with love and courage, embodying the archetype of a tragic hero defying unjust fate.
This five-act poem-drama is written by ZHOU Hongqiao, a renowned poet, playwright, and innovation course professor at Peking University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Mr. ZHOU said: “Xiang Yu and his Beauty Yu — their love-unto-death tragedy, interwoven with warrior’s ethics, valor, and free will versus fate — has resonated across millennia. It parallels Achilles’ choice at Troy or Dido’s pyre in the Aeneid, yet remains uniquely rooted in Chinese tradition.”
The operatic part is composed by Dr. WANG Xinyang, first-prize winner of the prestigious Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (2020) and Guggenheim Fellowship (2025).
With a Bachelor's degree from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, a Master from Manhattan School of Music, and a PhD from Music Department, University of Pittsburgh, WANG's musical language synthesizes Chinese traditional aesthetics and comprehensive exposure to Western art music, and have been performed by leading orchestras/ensembles at major festivals. His music is noted for exploring new possibilities in contemporary classical music of global appeal, with a distinctive voice and cross-cultural perspective that contribute to the ongoing dialogue in today's global musical landscape.
This performance features renowned conductor HOU Jie leading a symphony orchestra composed entirely of professors from the Orchestral Department of Xi’an Conservatory of Music.
Interviewed by local reporters, regarding to what is poem-opera, and the relationship between poem and opera. Mr. ZHOU Hongqiao referred to his paper presented in 2024 National Academic Conference on China and Foreign Literary Theory: The New Cultural Mission — The Renaissance of Neo-Classical Poetry and the Globalization of Chinese Culture Through Human‘s Common Language --- Music and Opera. He called it “Poemusic” and “Poem-opera”.
Mr. ZHOU stated that, in the world history, poetry can be divided into three categories: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, and dramatic poetry (i.e., poetic drama). Chinese tradition has primarily cultivated on lyric poetry, while the Western civilization is dramatic poetry, which originated from the three great tragedy playwright of ancient Greece—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—all of whom wrote plays in verse. This tradition continued through Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Ibsen.
Opera, on the other hand, is the musicalization of literature and the most profound genre among all integrations of literature and music. So opera is the highest art form of music.
More importantly, the history of a nation’s opera development is a reflection of its rise as a great power in human civilization. Thus, the significance of poetic drama and opera lies in their role as symbols of a nation’s prosperity and cultural flourishing.
Mr. ZHOU continued, the origins of opera can be traced back to Renaissance, beginning in Florence, the most economically advanced city at the time. Then it went spread quickly across the Italian peninsula. Subsequently, opera underwent a process of globalization, being absorbed by new nations and cultures—from Italy to France, England, Germany and Austria, Russia, and finally the U.S. The development of opera was entirely synchronized with the rise of these nations as great powers.
Since emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty first heard Italian missionaries perform opera in Forbidden City, opera has been present in China for over two hundred years. On the journey toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese culture, how should we position and develop China’s original opera?
Mr. ZHOU Hongqiao believes that poetry, as the foremost art of Chinese civilization, has historically been dominated by lyric poetry, with narrative poetry being underdeveloped, and poetic drama virtually nonexistent. Therefore, the first step is to use classical poetic techniques to compose large-scale poetic dramas. He calls it Neo-classical Poetry. His recent publication, The Art of Poetic Drama (People’s Literature Publishing House, 2025) represents an attempt in this direction. In addition to “The hegemon’s Farewell”, his another well known large-scale poetic drama “Discussion on Love with Poem and Wine in Heaven” is also included in this book. He imagined China’s six most famous poets that crossed different dynasties get together in the heaven: Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Shu Dongpo and Li Qingzhao. This work is appreciated by China ‘s academics as a “unprecedented masterpiece”。
Finally, Mr. ZHOU Hongqiao stated: “By innovating neo-classical poem-drama, I aim to extend lyric poetry tradition into a new category of dramatic poetry. By transforming it into music and opera, the so-called poemusic and poem-opera, I aim to pioneer a new pathway for Chinese culture ’s global reach. And the art of poetic drama should serve as the literary foundation for Chinese original opera.”
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